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COPYRIGHT 

Ferguson, Allen and Ferguson, 

1886. 



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PREFACE. 




BOOK has been so much written 
about, or so much studied, as the 
Bible, and at no time has this saying 
been more true than at the present. The message 
that it contains is of such transcendent importance 
for man that light from any source is desirable. In 
the following pages we have arranged in order a col- 
lection of essays relating to Biblical topics, or ques- 
tions connected with such topics. It is not a 
commentary, but we trust it will be found to contain just such 
information as is desired by every-day readers of the Bible. 

The larger part of the book is, properly speaking, an original 
production. While we can not claim that the information con- 
tained in its pages is now for the first time given to the public, 
yet it can only be obtained from a careful reading of many 
volumes, some difficult to obtain. It was the intention to make 
this work a compilation, gathering on each topic the thoughts of 
the best writers, but this was found to be largely impossible. 
Though consulting a large number of writers on each and every 
topic, we have deemed it best to write our own account, and 
wherever we made use of the language of another, to indicate 

(5) 



6 



PREFACE. 



such fact by the usual means. To this there are but few excep- 
tions. However, from page 561 to end of the book, our original 
intention has been followed, the nature of the subjects being 
such that this form of composition can be used to advantage. 

The work appears as the joint productions of two authors; it 
is not meant that one wrote one essay, and the other the rest. 
Each essay has received the careful attention of both. It is 
hoped that those who read it will find it a fit "Companion" for 
the Bible, and that they will gather from its perusal light on 
many difficult subjects, and that it will thus be to them a veri- 
table "Library op Biblical Knowledge." 

Cincinnati, January 1, 1886. 



•h**^: COHTEHTS. j^frm- 



THE BIBLE. 

The Bible a Wonderful Book— The importance of the Bible— The Bible Di- 
vided into the Old and New Testaments — Jewish Old Testament — How Arranged — 
The Books of the New Testament — The Authors of the Books of the Bible — 
When Collected into One Volume — The Books of the New Testament — How 
Handed Down to Us — Manuscripts of the Old Testament — The Masoretic Period — 
New Testament Manuscript — Age of Manuscripts how Determined — Division 
into Chapters — Division into Verses — The Septuagint Translation — Wycliffe's 
Translation — Tyndale's Tranlation — King James' Version — The New Bevised 
Version — The Inspiration of the Bible — The Infallibility of the Bible — Ancient 
Writers' Quotations from the Bible — General Conclusions Page 17 

WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

Moses — His Childhood — God's Announcement to Him — Genesis — Exodus — Le- 
viticus — Numbers — Deuteronomy — The Pentateuch — J oshua — Judges — The Jews 
in a Tribal State of Society — Buth — First and Second Samuel — First and Second 
Kings — Solomon's Eeign — Outline History of Israel — Of Judah — First and Sec- 
ond Chronicles — Written After the Exile — Ezra and Nehemiah — The Restoration 
to Palestine — Esther — Job — The Peculiarities of this Book — Psalms — Proverbs — 
Ecclesiastes — Canticles — Isaiah — Outline of Isaiah's Life — Jeremiah— Outline of 
Jeremiah's Life — Lamentations — Ezekiel — Daniel — Hosea — Joel — Amos, Oba- 
diah — Jonah — Micah — Nahum — Habakkuk — Zephaniah — Haggai — Zachariah — 
Malachi — General Conclusions 46 

"WRITERS OP THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

Matthew — His Peculiarities — Mark — The Relationship of Mark to Peter — 
Written at Borne — Luke — Luke a Physician — Written for the Greeks — John — 
Outline of John's Life — The Four Gospels Contrasted — The Acts of the Apostles — 
Outline of Paul's Life — His Missionary Journeys — The Apostolic Letters — 
Romans — First and Second Corinthians — Galatians — Ephesians — Philippians — 

(7) 



8 



CONTENTS. 



Colossians — First and Second Thessalonians — Epistle to Timothy — Titus — Phile- 
mon — Hebrews — Doubts as to its Authorship — James — Epistles of Peter — Outline 
of Peter's Life — Epistles of John — Jude — Revelation — Interesting Nature of this 
Book Page 93 

THE APOCRYPHA. 

Lost Inspired Books — Apocryphal Books — These should be no Longer 
Printed — Difference between Inspired and Apocryphal Books— Origin of Apocry- 
phal Books — Difference between the Protestant and Catholic Bibles — The Books of 
Esdras — Tobit — Judith — Esther — Wisdom of Solomon— Ecclesiasticus — Baruch — 
Additions to Daniel — The Prayer of Mauasses — The Books of Maccabees — Apocry- 
phal Books that are not Printed — New Testament Apocrypha — The Protevangelum 
of James — The Gospel of Thomas — The Gospel of Nicodenius — Apocryphal Acts — 
Apocryphal Epistles — Apocryphal Bevelations — General Conclusions 130 



THE BIBLE AID SCIENCE. 

Science Defined — The Relation between Bible and Science — The Mission of 
the Bible — What is Science — The Bible not given to Teach Science — The Inter- 
pretation of Scriptures — Bible and Science can not Conflict — Some Things Self- 
Existing — Matter and Life — The Meaning of Create — The Bible Silent on the First 
Creation of Matter — The Bible and Astronomy — Time in Creation — The Creation 
of Life — The Theory of Evolution — The Bible Silent on this Point — Evolution 
does not Rob God of Honor — The Creation of Man — Man's Dominion Over 
Nature — The Antiquity of Man — Adam a Typical Man — Adam not the First Cre- 
ated Man — Other Races of Men Living at the Time of Adam — General Con- 
clusions 158 



BIBLE AND CRITICISM. 

The Nature of Criticism — Duty in this Respect— Errors of Friends of the 
Bible — Science not Taught in the Bible — Adam's Sin — Why Our Views Change — 
The Death of Adam a Moral One — Natural Death a Result of Our Organization — 
The Theory of the Atonement — The Mosaic Laws — Repealed in the New Testa- 
ment — All Mysteries not Explained in the Bible 182 



THE SUPERNATURAL AND MIRACULOUS. 

Doubt a Means of Knowledge— Theories Must Rest on Facts— The Super- 
natural Defined— Moral Acts of this Nature Miracles Defined— Miracles can 

not be Explained— Conclusion 195 



THE DELUGE. 



Biblical Account of the Deluge— Noah Directed to Build— The Length of a 
Cubit— Dimension of the Ark— Location of Ararat— Traditions of a Flood— Scien- 



CONTENTS. 



9 



tific Aspects of the Question — How to Understand the Language Used in the 
Bible — No Eeason to Suppose the Flood Universal — The Flood Necessarily a Local 
One — Conclusions Pagk 204 



THE JEWS. 

Interest in the Jews — Location of Ur of the Chaldeans — Abraham — The 
Eeason of His Migration — Staying in Haran — The Visit to Egypt — The Condition 
of Palestine — Isaac — Jacob — Joseph — The Migration to Egypt — Length of the 
Stay in Egypt — Moses — Disadvantages of a Tribal State of Society — Advantages 
of the Same — Description of Palestine — Of the Valley of the Jordan — The Natu- 
ral Features of the Country — The Conquest of Canaan — A Partial Conquest Only — 
Civil Government Among the Jews — Judges — The Establishment of the Mon- 
archy — Saul — David — His Prosperous Eeign — Solomon — The Great Advances of 
His Eeign — The Introduction of Idolatry — The Social Life of the Hebrews — Their 
Garments — Literature — The Feasts — The Year of Jubilee — The Eeligion — The 
Tribe of Levi — The Civil Government — Their Military Organization — The Eevolt 
of the Ten Tribes — Idolatry in Israel — Omri — Elijah — Elisha — Jehu — Causes 
Leading to the Fall of . Israel — The Assyrians — Israel Overthrown — Judah — Asa — 
Queen Athaliah — Uzziah — Causes Leading to the Fall of Judah — Isaiah — Heze- 
kiah — The Eeligious Party and the Heathen Party — Manasseh — Josiah — Jere- 
miah — The Egyptian Vassalage — The Babylonian Vassalage — The Seventy Years 
of Captivity — The Eestoration — Eebuilding Jerusalem — Ezra — Nehemiah 212 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 

Eeligion a Natural Thing — A Eeligion Defined — The Objects of a Eeligion — 
Brahminism — Tendency of Brahminism — Caste — Buddhism — Guatama's Life — 
The Wonderful Spread of Buddhism — Advance Over Judaism — Nirvana — Confu- 
cianism — Contrasted with Other Eeligions — Outline of Confucius' Life — Elements 
of this Success — The World at the Time of Confucius — Zoroasterism — The Pecu- 
liarities of this Eeligion — Influence on Other Eeligions — Mohammedanism — The 
Koran — Appeal to the Sensuous Feelings of Men — Judaism — Difference Between 
this Eeligion and Christianity — Christianity — The Main Points of this Ee- 
ligion 282 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Definition of Christianity — First Century — Eapid Progress of Christianity — 
Simplicity of the Early Church — Evils of the First Century — Gnosticism — Second 
Century — The Spread of Christianity — Church Government — The Church Becom- 
ing Corrupted— Third Century— Growth of the Church — The Persecutions of this 
Century— The Government of the Church — The Forms of Worship — Discussions 
of this Century — Origin — Fourth Century — Constantine the Great — The Papacy 
Foreshadowed — Forms of Worship — Monasteries — Discussion of the Trinity — 
Arius— Jerome — St. Augustine — Fifth Century— Fall of the Western Empire of 



10 



CONTENTS. 



Eome — The Patriarchs— The Superstition of the Day — The Eise of the Nesto- 
rians — The Pelagian Controversy — Sixth Century — The Dark Ages — The Growing 
Importance of the Bishop of Eome — The Great Decline in Eeligion — The 
Monophysites — Seventh Century — Progress of Christianity — Eise of Mohammed- 
anism—The Papacy Fully Established — Eighth Century — Image Worship— Ninth 
Century — Increased Authority of the Popes — The Final Withdrawal of the Greek 
Church — Discussion About the Lord's Supper — Tenth Century — The Gloomy State 
of Eeligion — Second Advent Doctrine — Eleventh Century — The First Crusades — 
Twelfth Century — Eise of the Waldenses — Partial Eevival of Learning — Thir- 
teenth Century — Christianity Losing Ground — The Organization of the Inquisi- 
tion — Fourteenth Century — Christianity Driven Out of Asia — Quarrels Between 
the Popes and Princes — Split in the Catholic Church — Fifteenth Century — The 
Execution of John Huss — Conclusion Page 312 

THE REFORMATION". 

Events Preceding the Eeformation — Luther's Boyhood — His Character- 
Philip Melancthon — Ulric Zwingli — John Calvin — The Doctrine of Indulgence — 
John Tetzel — The Ninety-five Propositions — Cardinal Cajetan — The Bull of Ex- 
communication — The Diet of Worms — Luther's Confinement in Wartenburg — 
Divisions Among the Eeformers — The War of the Peasants — The Diet of Spire — 
Protests Against Its Decree — The Augsburg Confession — The Decree of the Diet of 
Augsburg — The Peace of Nuremberg — Eeformation in France — Eeformation in 
England — The Anabaptists — The Siege of Munster — The Conference at Worms — 
The Council of Trent — Overthrow of the Protestants — The Interim — The Council 
Eeconvenes in Trent — The War and Protestant Success — The Treaty of Passau — 
The Lutheran Church — The Eef ormed Churches — Calvinism — Conclusion 357 

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATION'S. 

Differences in Eeligious Views to be Expected — The Advents — William 
Miller— The Baptists — General Beliefs — Free-will Baptists — Old School Baptists — 
Six-principle Baptists — The German Baptists — Seventh-day Baptists — Seventh-day 
German Baptists — Christians — Church of God — Campbellites — Congregational 
Government — Congregationalists — The Catholic Church — The Organization of the 
Church — Protestant Episcopal Church — Eeformed Episcopal Church — The Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church— The Wesleys — Methodist Episcopal Church South — 
African Methodist Episcopal Church — The Methodist Protestant Church — Wes- 
leyan Methodist Church — United Brethren in Christ — Evangelical Association — 
The Presbyterian Church — The Form of Government — Old and New Schools — 
United Presbyterian Church — Cumberland Presbyterians — Evangelical Lutheran 
Church — Eeformed Church in America — Eeformed Church in the United States — 
The Mennonites — The Divisions of this Denomination — The Moravians — Sweden- 
borgianism — Unitarians — The Universalists — Spiritualism — Quakers — George 
Fox — The Hicksites — The Shakers — Ann Lee — Mormons— Origin of the Book of 
Mormons — The Jews — The Greek Church 382 



CONTENTS. 



11 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 

The Nature of Prophecy— Prophecy of the Fall — Promise of a Savior— Curse 
of Canaan— Egyptian Bondage Foretold— Prophetic Blessing of Jacob— Of the 
Sons of Joseph — The Promise of the Throne to David — The Rebellion of the Ten 
Tribes Foretold — Concerning Sennacherib — The Sign to Ahaz — Prediction of 
Christ— The Burden of Babylon— The Burden of Moab— Of Damascus— The Bur- 
den of Egypt — Predictions Eespecting Christ — The Babylonian Captivity Fore- 
told — The Destruction of Tyre — Daniel — Historical Outline- — Antiochus Epi- 
phanes — The Interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's Dream — Daniel's First Vision — 
His Second Vision — Time in Prophecy — Further Prophecies Relating to Antiochus 
Epiphanes — Remarkable Nature of Daniel's Prophecies — Prophecies of Hosea — ■ 
Joel— Amos — Micah — Nahum — Haggai — Malachi Page 430 

NEW TESTAMENT PKOPHECIES. 

Prophetic Announcement of Christ's Birth — Simeon's Blessing — The Rock 
on Which the Church is Built — Christ's Prophecy in Reference to the Destruction 
of Jerusalem — Prophecies Relating to the Judgment Scene — Paul's Shipwreck — 
Prophecies in Reference to the Resurrection — The Man of Sin — The Revelation of 
J ohn — Historical Outline of the First Century — Jewish Persecution — Roman Per- 
secution — The Date of Composition Considered — The Style of Composition — Diffi- 
culties of the Subject — Predictions Concerning the Jewish Persecution — Triumph 
of Christianity Over Heathenism — Prophetic Mention of Nero — Final Triumph of 
Christianity 460 

BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 

General Thoughts on Bible Difficulties — Genesis Considered — The Creation — 
The Creation of Woman — Age of the Patriarchs — The Descendants of Noah — The 
Confusion of Tongues — Abraham's Life — The Destruction of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah — Exodus — The Miracles of this Book — Leviticus — The Law Considered — 
Numbers — Balaam's Prophecy — Deuteronomy — Treatment of the Canaanites — 
Joshua — The Stoning of Achan — Judges — Jephthah's Vow — The Feats of Samson — 
First Samuel — The Destruction of Amalek — The Witch of Endor — Second Sam- 
uel — David's Sin in Numbering Israel — First Kings — Second Kings — The Mira- 
cles of Elisha — First and Second Chronicles — The Spirit of the Old Testament 
Books — The Genealogy of Christ — Appeals to the Old Testament in Matthew — 
Christ Disputing in the Temple — Christ's Temptation — The Miracles Performed 
by Christ — The Casting Out of Evil Spirits — Conclusion 481 

GOD. 

Man Made to " Feel After God "—The Existence of God Assumed— God's 
Eternal Existence— God's Omnipotence —God's Omniscience — God a Changeless 
Being— The Trinity of the Godhead— God the Christ— God the Holy Spirit— All 
Things Created by Christ— The Unity of the Godhead— Erroneous Views About 
God— The Bible Conceptions of God— God and Conscience -529 



12 



CONTENTS. 



JESUS CHRIST. 

Great Men of All Ages — Jesus Christ the Greatest — Apparent Impossibilities 
United in Christ — Jesus and Prophecy — Jesus as a Boy — Jesus Baptized by 
John — His Enemies can Find no Fault in Him — He Bebukes the Babbis — His 
Mission to Save the Lost — The Human Nature of Christ — His Arrest — The Cruci- 
fixion — The Besurrection — His Promise of the Comforter — Christ the Besurrec- 
tion and the Life — Christ Working Through all Past Time Page 538 

PEAYEE. 

Prayer a Condition of Blessing — What is Prayer? — Prayer in the Name of 
Christ — Implied Condition in Prayer — Prayers for Others — The Prayer of Faith — 
Prayer for the Sick — The Prayer of Faith can not be Offered at all Times — The 
Importance of Prayer — No Set Form of Prayer — Family Prayers 549 

RELIGION. 

Beligion a Natural Thing — Seen in Everything— Beligion Defined — Man's 
Eternal Interests — The Importance of Beligion — The Sweet Influence of Beligion — 
The Hope of Beligion — Beligion not for Idle Moments — The Befinements of Be- 
ligion— The Strength of Beligion— Beligion not a Subject of Jest— Christian 
Graces — Beligion an Every-day Affair — Beligious Pleasures 561 

LIFE. 

Contemplations of Life— The Lapse of Years not Life — Life Composed of 
Little Things — Comparisons of Life— A Voyage — A Battle — How to Improve Life — 
The Value of the Present— Men Baised up for an Emergency — The Value of 
Time— Life a Struggle— The Aim of Life— The Course of Life— Beverses of 
Life— The Sorrows of Life— Life What We Make It— The Glory of Man— Im- 
prove the Present — The Brevity of Life — The End of Life 571 

NOBLE LIVING. 

Desire for the Approval of Others— How to Accomplish this End— A Life of 
Usefulness— Avoid an Aimless Life— Man can Accomplish Something— Man In- 
fluenced by Fate— Life a Garden— The Duty of Life— Our Influence Over Oth- 
ers—Life Full of Significance— The Struggles of Life— Our Course in Life- 
Life and Happiness— Unselfish Acts— Life and Moral Principles 581 

CHARACTER. 

Importance of Character— How Formed— A Good Name— Character the Aim 
of Life— Each Individual's Duty— Character Formed by Trifling Acts— Confidence 
in Men of Character— Character Different from Reputation— Character a Source 



CONTENTS. 



13 



of Joy — Character can not be Hid — Can not be Obtained without Effort — Per- 
severance in Well-doing — Hope — How We Form Character Page 591 

INFLUENCE. 

Influence Possessed by All — The Home Influence — Influence Over Little 
Children — The Importance of Home Influence — Influence of Great and Good 
Men — Importance of Choosing Associates — Woman's Influence — Importance of 
Early Training — Power of Example — A Father's Influence — All can Make Their 
Influence for Good 602 

DUTY. 

Duty Supreme — Duty can not be Shunned — Pleasure in Duty Done — Duty 
Always with Us — Duty and Obligation Different — Life Made up of Duty — Every 
Duty Brings its Eeward — All can do Their Duty— Imperious Claims of Duty — 
Our Eesponsibility — The Path of Duty— All Should be Conscientious in this 
Matter 614 

WELL-DOING. 

Duty of All to Kender Assistance — All can Do Good — Assistance can be 
Given in Little Things — Assistance of Children to Parents — Gifts of Money — 
Selfishness — We Should be Social — Duty of Sympathy — Should not Weary in 
Well-doing — Power of a Good Example — Duty of Friends — Life is Short 627 

INTEGRITY. 

Moral Wealth — Principles the Springs of Action — Integrity Shown in Little 
Details — Integrity Shown in Truthfulness — Truthfulness — Every Little Act of 
Consequence — Integrity Essential to Success — In What Success Consists — In 
What Integrity Consists — We Admire Men of Integrity of Character — No Perma- 
nent Influence Without Integrity 638 

KINDNESS. 

Kindness in the Journey of Life — In What Kindness Consists — Kindness 
Begets Kindness — Kindness Against Selfishness — Kindness as a Quality of Suc- 
cess — Kindly Sentiments Must not be Suppressed — Thy Influence of Kindness — 
Power of Kindness — Kindness, How Shown — The Rewards of Kindness 648 

FAITH. 

The Work of Faith— The Results o! Faith— Faith in a Religious Sense— Tht 
Effects of Faith on Life— The Lessons of Faith— Faith, How Strengthened— The 
Duty oi Christians— When Faith Should be Used—All Have Discouragements— 



14 



CONTENTS. 



Distribution of Good and Evil — The Dark Side of Human Experience — Kesults 
of Abiding Faith— Faith Spoken of in the Bible Page 657 

HOPE. 

The Anchor of the Soul — Hope the Sustainer — Hope a Blessing or an Evil — 
Hope the Inspirer — Hope the Main-spring of Action — We Should Fix Our Hopes 
on God 666 

CHAEITT. 

Charity of Varied Import — All can Perform Charity — The Natural Direction 
of Charity — Charity Springs from the Heart— Charity Brings its Own Beward — 
Charity Opposed to Selfishness — Charity and Alms-giving — Charitable Feel- 
ings 673 

EEGEET. 

The Nature of Begret — How Much We All have to Begret — Pleasant Be- 
miniscences should not Dwell on Past Troubles — Vain Begrets 682 

SOEEOW. 

Universal Beign of Sorrow — Joy Springs from Sorrow — Estimate of Earthly 
Prosperity— The Discipline of Sorrow— Sudden Sorrow — Besignation Under 
Sorrow ggy 

DEATH. 

Life a Journey— The First Death in a Family— All Have Sorrowed Over 
Death— This World the Domain of Death— Insecurity of Life— Enjoyments of 
Life — Lessons to be Learned from Death — The Death of a Just Man 693 

IMMOETALITY. 

Interest in this Question— The Belief of All Nations— This Question Bests on 
Faith— Comfort in this Thought— This Belief Ennobles Man— This Life a Pil- 
grimage — Conclusion , ygi 



rr^g jj] 0, oooooooooo ooo oo oooob o"o"6' o 

g»> §| LM OF MTRATM& j jf^it 

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PAGE. 

1. Departure from Egypt Frontispiece 

2. Finding of Moses 48 

3. Birth of Christ 92 

4. Building the Tower of Babel 131 

5. Christ Disputing in the Temple 159 

6. Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still 183 

7. The Deluge 194 

8. The Overthrow of Pharoah's Army 213 

9. Map of Palestine 225 

10. Solomon's Judgment 248 

11. The Widow's Mite. 283 

12. The Ascension of Christ 313 

13. Euth Gleaning 333 

14. Christ and Nicodemus 356 

15. The Crucifixion 383 

16. Hagar Praying in the Wilderness 409 

17. Joseph Before Pharoah 431 

18. Christ's Entry into Jerusalem 461 

19. Christ Walking on the Water 480 

20. The Cedars of Lebanon for the Temple 504 

21. Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene 528 

22. Christ and the Penitent Woman 560 

23. Eebekah at the Well 603 

24. Christ Eaising Lazarus 626 

25. Faith— Christ in the Garden , , 656 

26. Christ Blessing Little Children 681 



(15) 




" Thou truest friend man ever knew, 

Thy constancy I've tried; 
When all were false I've found thee true, 

My counselor and guide. 
The mines of earth no treasures give 

That could this volume tmy; 
In teaching me the way to live 

It taught me how to die." 

[Selected.] 



(16) 



©HE BlBIiE. 




LL classes of men ac- 



knowledge the Bible 



to be one of the most 
wonderful books in existence. It has some- 
thing within its pages suitable for the most 
diverse times and occasions, when mirth and 
festivity abound no less than when crushing 
sorrow is with us. The historian finds in its 
pages much valuable history of a most inter- 
esting people; the jurist has laid before him the oldest 
code of laws known; the philosopher finds questions of 
great importance |)hilosophically considered ; the poet has 
whole books written in a highly poetical style to con- 
sider ; but the devout Christian, be he historian, philoso- 
pher, jurist, or poet — a man of business or a laboring 
man, learned or unlearned — finds on nearly every page 
something that helps him to bear the ills of life. In a 

2 (17) 



18 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



certain sense, we never exhaust the meaning of the Bible 
phrases. There is something in them always remaining. 
They pass into proverbs ; they pass into laws ; they pass 
into doctrines; they pass into conversations; but they 
never pass away : and after all the use that is made of 
them, they are still not exhausted. 

The greatest importance of the Bible is the influence 
it has over its readers in matters pertaining to religion. 
All systems of religion are supported by what is claimed 
to be revelations by prophets and inspired men. The 
countless millions of Asia reverence the teachings of the 
Veda and the Zend A vesta. The Mohammedans look to 
the Koran as the fount of their religious life. By the 
Christian world the Bible is the book regarded as the 
most precious of books, and of authority in matters of 
religion. The devotees of every religion claim that their 
sacred books are of more authority than any other. They 
are ready to defend them with their life, if need be, feel- 
ing that they would not be true to their sense of right if 
they were not ever ready to make any necessary sacri- 
fice for them. In this age of the world, when knowledge 
is so generally diffused, we ought to be able to give some 
intelligible reason for the faith that is in us. So let us 
learn what we can of the Bible as a whole, its origin, 
and the manner in which it has been handed down to us. 
Above all, let us notice the influence which the Bible 
exerts on men ; for as a tree is to be judged by its fruits, 
a system of government by its results when put in force, 
even so is a system of religion to be judged by the lives 
of its adherents. 

The Christian Bible is a collection of books, written, 
as is supposed, between about 1490 before Christ and 9S 
after His death, thus including about sixteen hundred 



THE BIBLE. 



19 



years. These books are the productions of many differ- 
ent authors — how many is not known. As every one 
knows, they are divided into two general classes — the 
Old and the New Testament, the word Testament, in 
this case, meaning the covenant or compact between God 
and man. The Old Testament contains, according to our 
version, thirty-nine books. The Jews, however, counted 
only twenty-two books in the Old Testament. They had, 
of course, the same books that we have, but they counted 
them differently. For instance, what we call the twelve 
minor prophets, from Hosea to Malachi, they counted as 
but one book. 

Their reason for counting only twenty two-books is 
found in the fact that there are but twenty-two letters in 
the Hebrew alphabet, and they expressed numbers by 
means of these letters. Jerome, one of the most learned 
scholars of the early Church, says: "As there are 
twenty-two letters by which we write in Hebrew every- 
thing we utter, and the human voice is comprised within 
their constituent initial elements, so twenty-two volumes 
are reckoned by which the tender and yet unwearied in- 
fancy of the just man is instructed, as by elementary let- 
ters, in the doctrines of God." In the Greek language 
there are twenty-four letters, and so the immortal poems 
of the Illiacl and Odyssey are divided into twenty-four 
books. For this reason, also, some of the early Greek 
writers on the Bible made twenty-four books of the Old 
Testament. 

The books of the Old Testament are so arranged that 
similar classes of productions follow each other. This 
arrangement is not at all according to the time or order 
in which the books were written. The book of Genesis 
is thought by some to have been written at a later date 



20 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



than the book of Job, and yet the former is placed first 
in the Bible. The first sixteen books, from Genesis to 
Hehemiah, may be called the historical books. Though 
largely concerned with the history of the JeAvish people, 
yet they also trace the developments of those religious 
ideas which underlie their national life. The prophetic 
and the poetical books follow next. We must remember 
they cover a great extent of time, and are of different 
styles. It has been well said of them: "In all litera- 
ture there are no books like these in severe morality, 
high religious tone, sublime conception, grand diction, and 
rich imagery." 

The books of the New Testament are twenty-seven. 
They were, of course, written after Christ. They give 
the only original account of the birth and early spread of 
Christianity. Here, also, the arrangement in which they 
are placed is not the same as the order in which they 
were written. The Grospel according to John, in the 
opinion of many scholars, was written nearly thirty years 
after the Revelation. Similar classes of books are placed 
together. The first four contain the memoirs of Christ's 
life, His teachings, etc. One gives us an account of the 
acts of the apostles, especially of Peter and Paul. 
Twenty-one are apostolic letters written to the early 
churches, called forth by various exigencies. They throw 
much light upon the early constitution and spread of tne 
Christian Church, and the development of its doctrines. 
The Revelation is the only prophetic book of the New 
Testament. It was written when the Christians were 
greatly depressed by a threatened persecution. It cheered 
them up by prophesying of the glories in store for them. 

The books of which we have just spoken, taken col- 
lectively, constitute the Bible. Let us take a general 



THE BIBLE. 



21 



outline of their origin and probable authors. That the 
books of the Old Testament are of great antiquity is 
undoubted, some of them, of course, being much more 
ancient than others. They are the productions of many 
authors spread over many ages. The evidence is con- 
clusive that some centuries before the Christian era there 
was in existence a body of writings regarded as sacred by 
the Jewish people ; and further, that these writings con- 
stitute what we call the Old Testament. There are verses 
in the Old Testament mentioning the existence of this 
law, and the care with which it was to be preserved. 
It also mentions the additions made to it from time to 
time, as for instance, by Joshua. 1 Collections were also 
made of the saying of others. 2 It is agreed, however, 
that Malachi was the last of the Old Testament 
writers. 

We only wish in this place to make a general refer- 
ence to the authorship of the various books of the Bible. 
Practically, it makes but very little difference whether 
we know the names of the authors or not. The author- 
ship of the first five books of the Bible is generally accred- 
ited to Moses. We call them collectively, the Pentateuch. 
While agreeing that, in a proper sense of the word, Moses 
was their author, yet there are certain statements to be 
taken into consideration. It need not be doubted that he 
was, to some extent, a compiler : copying documents that 
he found already in existence. We may also admit that 
some few additions have been made by later hands. He 
evidently did not write the account of his own death given 
in Deuteronomy, neither is it at all likely that he wrote 
the verse, reading: "The man Moses was very meek 
above all the men that were upon the face of the earth." 3 

1 Joshua xxiv, 26. 2 Proverbs xxv, 1. 3 Numbers xii, 3. 



22 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



It may be that a large portion of these books were writ- 
ten by others. 

Our scholars generally agree that Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve minor prophecies, were 
written by the men whose names they bear. Perhaps 
Jonah is an exception, and perhaps, also, parts of Isaiah 
and Zachariah. There is a class of books that bear no 
name as author, and yet, in many ways, they show that 
the author was assumed to be known. In this list is 
Psalms. These were written by different men at differ- 
ent periods of time. Moses is supposed to have written 
the ninetieth. David is the author of many of them. 
Solomon wrote two. 1 Asaph wrote eleven psalms. 2 
Heman wrote the eighty-eighth. Ethan the next one. 
Ten psalms are ascribed to the sons of Koran. But the 
expression found in these, " To the chief musician for 
the sons of Korah," may not refer to authorship, but to 
some direction about singing them, and so may not 
throw any light on the authorship. Some were written 
after the exile, and some even later. The time from the 
date of the earlier to that of the later is probably five 
hundred years. 

Some books are ascribed to Solomon, which he either 
did not write, or else they have been changed by some 
one else. The book of Proverbs, for instance, is largely 
his work; but, in its present form, it is probably the 
work of some other and later hand. Proverb xxx is 
ascribed to Agur, xxxi to King Lemuel, as taught by 
his mother. Ecclesiastes is about Solomon, but was prob- 
ibly not written by him. Solomon would hardly say, 
I ivas king over Israel at Jerusalem." Neither is it 
likely that he would assert that he was wiser and richer 

1 The Ixxii and the exxvii. 2 L, and from lxxi v to lxxxiii. 



THE BIBLE. 



23 



than all the kings in Jerusalem before him, 1 when David, 
his father, was the only king who preceded him. The 
fact is, many expressions in this book incline some to 
think that it was written many years after Solomon's day, 
perhaps as late as 425 B. C, by a Hebrew who had trav- 
eled and learned something of Greek and Persian specu- 
lative philosophy. The Canticles also purports to be 
written by Solomon. The subject of this book is, indeed, 
Solomon. The style is, however, so unlike Proverbs that 
it is difficult to believe that he wrote it. 

Many of the Old Testament books are anonymous, and 
all suggestions as to who wrote them are mere guesses, 
and of no importance. To this class belong Job, Lamen- 
tations, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the two books of Samuel, 
Kings, and Chronicles; also Esther, JNTehemiah, and Ezra. 
There is nothing but conjecture as to the authors of these 
books, with, perhaps, an exception in favor of Lamenta- 
tions. This may be regarded as probably the work of 
Jeremiah. There is not much dispute as to the author- 
ship of the books of the New Testament. It is not, 
however, definitely settled whether Paul wrote the Epis- 
tle to the Hebrews. 

Written, as were the books of the Bible, during the 
course of many years, we may inquire when they were 
gathered and assigned a sacred character. To under- 
stand the difficulties of this inquiry we may say that, 
with the exception of a few passages written in Chaldee, 
the books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew, 
but that we have no other books of a historical or literary 
character which were written at the same time. In fact, 
they are nearly all that remains of the Hebrew lan- 
guage. So we see that much obscurity rests upon this 

1 Ecclesiastes i, 12, andii; 9. 



24 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



point. Various passages in the Old Testament relate 
with what care the books of Moses and the prophets 
were handed down. A very general tradition among the 
Jews is to the effect that in the times of Ezra and Nehe- 
miah the books of the Old Testament were gathered to- 
gether and recognized as the completed standard of God's 
teachings. 1 It is not meant that these men, or persons 
they appointed, passed on the question whether such and 
such books were inspired or not ; but that they carefully 
gathered together those which had always, from the time 
of their composition, been so regarded by the Jewish 
people. It is undisputed that, at the time of Christ, the 
books of the Old Testament, arranged substantially as we 
have them arranged, were received as the Bible. Christ 
constantly refers to them as the "Word of God," and 
impressed on His disciples the necessity of accepting them. 

The books of the New Testament were all written in 
the first century of the Christian era. They were writ- 
ten by men who were contemporaneous — some of them 
close friends. No specified time can be given when these 
writings were first collected together and formally recog- 
nized. The memoirs of Christ were written by inspired 
men who were early impressed with the necessity of 
committing to writing these accounts, so that the knowl- 
edge of these events might not be lost. The apostolic 
letters were written to the different churches at various 
places, so we can see that quite a time would elapse 
before they would be gathered together as one whole. 

We may now inquire how the Bible has been handed 
down to us. The ripest scholarship of the world has 
been investigating this point. All that we possess to-day 

1 The tendency of modern historical criticism is to throw a doubt on there 
being any such tradition. (Andover Review, Jan. 18, 1885, p. 52.) 



THE BIBLE. 



25 



are copies of the earlier manuscripts. From what we can 
gather, we are certain that at a very early date the copies 
were written on papyrus rolls. The letters employed 
were an ancient form of Hebrew. Only consonants were 
used, and they were run together in a continuous line. 
We can see that only persons familiar with the spoken 
language could read such writings ; consequently, when 
Hebrew became a dead language, it was necessary to 
indicate in some manner the vowels. This was done by 
means of little dots variously placed. 

After the return of the Jews from the captivity of 
Babylon, the sacred books, according to the traditions to 
which we have just referred, were gathered together and 
subjected to a careful examination. Certain arrange- 
ments were also made for the convenience of the people 
in public reading in the synagogue. Words were sep- 
arated from each other, and the text was broken up into 
sections of less or greater length. This text, so arranged, 
was most carefully preserved. In copying, the most 
scrupulous care was taken to make the copy exact — even 
errors were to be copied. Nothing was to be changed, 
nothing to be added. 

We have no manuscripts of the Old Testament going- 
back to that period. This was the Hebrew Bible at the 
time of Christ. Between two and three hundred years 
before Christ a translation of this Old Testament was 
made into Greek. This work was probably done at Alex- 
andria. It is called the Septuagint, sometimes the Sev- 
enty, from the notion that seventy scholars co-operated 
in making it. This translation was the work of man}' 
years, and some portions of it are much better done than 
others. The Pentateuch is considered by scholars the 
best portion of the work. We must reflect that when 



26 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



this translation was made they possessed many manu- 
scripts that have since disappeared. They must have 
varied somewhat from those we now have, or else we can 
not account for the peculiar way they translated portions. 
This Septuagint Version was largely used by the writers 
of the New Testament, This helps us to understand 
why, in some cases, their Quotations from the Old Testa- 
ment differ from ours. 1 

From the sixth to the eleventh century is known as 
the Masoretic period. The Avord masora- means a collec- 
tion of traditions, and the object of the workers of this 
period was to gather the critical material of an older 
date. So they collected and compared manuscripts, no- 
ticed points of difference, and made some suggestions on 
their own part. These suggestions have been the cause 
of considerable confusion. In some cases the notes were 
made in separate manuscripts, in others written along 
the margin, and where the margin was not sufficient they 
were appended to the text. Some of the manuscripts of 
the Pentateuch, still in existence, belong to this period. 
But we have no manuscripts of any of the other books 
of the Old Testament going back that far. Since the 
close of the eleventh century the labors of our scholars 
have been devoted to elucidating the Masoretic text. 
We have four or five manuscripts of the twelfth century, 
and from that date their number rapidly increases. 

Of the books of the New Testament, also, we have 
only copies of early manuscripts. They were doubtless 
originally written on papyrus rolls, with one piece attached 
to the end of another, and rolled up to be carried or pre- 
served. The original copies have all perished, or, at 



1 In this way we can understand why the writer of Hebrews x, 5, varies in his 
quotation of P.salm XL :6. 



THE BIBLE. 



27 



least, none of them are known to exist. The manuscripts 
we have are all in book form, and written with usually 
more than one column on a page. The oldest manu- 
script of the New Testament still extant was written 
early in the fourth century, some two hundred years after 
the last of the apostles died. This copy is now at St. 
Petersburgh. It was found in the convent of St. Cath- 
erine, on Mt. Sinai. Professor Stowe thus speaks of it: 
" It contained the Septuagint, the entire New Testament, 
with the Epistle of Barnabas, and portions of the Shep- 
herd of Hernias — the most complete, the most ancient, 
the best manuscript copy of the entire New Testament 
that has yet been known." It is supposed to be one pre- 
pared under the direction of Constantine the Great, by 
Eusebius, for distribution to some of the more impor- 
tant churches. In the Vatican at Rome there is another 
manuscript written in the fourth century. 

Experts can easily learn the probable age of a man- 
uscript from the form of the letters, the color of the ink, 
and other evidences. The oldest manuscripts are written 
in large capital letters, with no separation for the words, 
sentences, verses, or chapters, having neither marks of 
punctuation nor accent. One letter follows another until 
the line is full, then beginning on the next line in any 
part of the word. Manuscripts so written are called 
uncial, from a word meaning the twelfth of a thing — 
probably the twelfth of a foot or an inch. This style of 
writing ceased about the tenth century, when the cursive, 
or running hand, took its place. All manuscripts in wicial 
are, therefore, earlier than the tenth century. It is not so 
difficult to read such writing as might be thought. We 
could write English in the same way, as, for example, "in 



28 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



TIIEBEGINNINGiWASTHE WORD ANDTPIE WORD WAS WITHGODAN 
DTHE WORDWASGOD. ' ' 

The division of both Testaments into chapters is com- 
paratively a recent thing.- By some this is attributed to 
Cardinal Hugh de St. Cher, about A. D. 1240. Others, 
with more reason, regard it as a device of Stephen Lang- 
ton, Archbishop of Canterbury, one of the barons who 
wrested from King John the Magna Charta. Some would 
ascribe this division to still other parties. This early 
division into chapters was not the same in all Bibles, 
and is not to-day. The chapters themselves were sub- 
divided with capital letters prefixed to the division, as A, 
B, C, etc. The modern division in verses of the Old 
Testament is that of the Hebrew manuscripts of the 
Masora period, of which we have already spoken. In 
these manuscripts the end of each verse was marked by 
a pause like a colon ; still the verses were not numbered 
for a long time. About the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
tury every fifth verse was numbered with a Hebrew let- 
ter. Thus the first verse was marked with Aleph, the first 
Hebrew letter ; the fifth verse with Tie, the fifth letter, and 
so on. In the year 1680 a further change was made ; 
the first verse was still marked Aleph, but the second 
verse was numbered 2 ; the third, 3 ; the fourth, 4 ; the 
fifth, he, and so on. In our English Bibles the number 
of the verse in the Old Testament does not always cor- 
respond with that of the Hebrew, especially in the 
Psalms. In the Hebrew the heading of the chapters is 
called a verse, or a part of one, and sometimes more 
than one. 

The verses in the New Testament are the work of 
Robert Stephens, in 1551. A very few changes have 
been made since then, and but few. This division is 



THE BIBLE. 



29 



sometimes unfortunate, as it destroys the connection. It 
is, however, convenient for reference, and will, in some 
form, be preserved. If all remember that the verse 
division is no part of the Bible proper, little evil will 
result from this division. Henry Stephens, Robert's son, 
says his father made this verse division while going 
from Paris to Lyons, and a great part of it was done 
while riding on horseback. It would have been better 
done in his study; but it can not well now be changed. 

We have heretofore spoken of the manner in which 
the Bible has been handed down to us. It would be well 
in this connection to speak of some of the translations of 
the Bible from the original language in Avhich it was 
given. We have stated that the Old Testament, with 
the exception of a very few verses, 1 was written in Pie- 
brew; that, in fact, it contains nearly all of the Hebrew 
literature that has come down to us. We have also men- 
tioned the earliest translation of it into Greek, known 
as the Septuagint Version, and have shown the influence 
which this translation exerted on the writers of the New 
Testament. This translation was the forerunner of many 
other versions. In the course of a few hundred years 
the Old Testament was translated into nearly all the lan- 
guages of Asia Minor and those of Northern Africa. 
The translation that was the most famous being in Latin, 
by Jerome, in the early part of the fifth century, known 
as the Vulgate. This is the translation that has much 
modified all our English and modern translations. 

Wycliffe made the first translation into English about 
1380 — not from the original Hebrew, but from the Latin 



1 These verses are Daniel, from ii, 4, to end of vii; and Ezra, from iv, 7, to vi, 
18, and vii, 12 to 26. These verses were written in Chaldee, a language similar to 
the Hebrew spoken at Babylon. 



30 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



translation of which we have just spoken. A great many 
legal words were thus introduced into the English Bible 
which should have no place in it, words that express 
legal, and some of them pagan, ideas about God — such 
as represent Him as being appeased, placated, and rendered 
propitious toward men, by what Christ suffered for men. 
Forty years after the death of Wycliffe, at the order of 
the Council of Constance, his bones were dug up, burned, 
and the ashes thrown into a brook. Fuller tells us how 
"the brook conveyed his ashes into the Avon, Avon into 
Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main 
ocean ; and thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblems of 
his doctrine, which is now dispensed all the world over." 

William Tyndale did more than any one man in the 
work of translating the Scriptures into English, and for 
his ceaseless labors in this direction he was burned at the 
stake, after having been strangled, in 1533. Before this, 
however, in 1525, he had printed at Worms his transla- 
tion of the New Testament from the original Greek. 
His fellow laborer, Coverdale, finished the translation of 
the Old Testament in 1535, but this version is largely a 
compilation. This was followed in turn by a translation 
known as Mathew's Bible, the work, however, of John 
Rogers, writing under the name of Mathew. This was 
the authorized version in the time of Edward VI. A 
new and careful revision, from the original tongues, was 
made by English religious refugees at Geneva, in 1560, 
and called, from that circumstance, the Genevan Bible. 
This was the first English Bible with Roman type, verses, 
and no Apocrypha. Still another version is known as 
the Bishop's Bible, being the work of Bishop Parker and 
other eminent scholars. The Catholic Bible came a little 
later ; the JSTew Testament appearing first at Rheims, in 



THE BIBLE. 



31 



1582, the Old Testament in 1609, at Douay. The basis 
of this translation was the Vulgate of Jerome. 

This brings us down to what is known as King James' 
Version — the one in common use to-day. There was 
some discussion on the accession of James I as to what 
was the Bible; the Established Church of England using 
that edition known as the Bishop's Bible, while the Dis- 
senters used the Genevan Bible, and it was generally 
admitted that neither was a good version. To remedy 
this evil, fifty-four learned men were appointed to make a 
revised translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew 
and Greek. So far as is known, only forty-seven of these 
men took any part in the work. They were divided into 
six companies, two of which met at Cambridge, two at 
Westminster, and two at Oxford. They were to some 
extent fettered by royal directions, such as this : " The 
ordinary Bible read in the church, commonly called the 
Bishop's Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the 
original will permit." All will agree that the better way 
to secure a good translation would be to change the above 
to, "Altered as much as the original requires." This 
revision was given to the public in 1611. 

It was called the "Authorized Version," but why so 
called we can not say, as it was "never authorized by 
royal proclamation, by order of Council, by act of Par- 
liament, nor by vote of Convocation." Whether the 
words, "appointed to be read in the churches," were used 
by order of the editor, or will of the printer, is unknown. 
This revision was a great improvement on all that came 
before it. It was hesitatingly received at first. For a 
whole generation the other editions continued in use, but 
its many excellent points finally led the way to universal 
acceptance among the English-speaking Protestants. It 



32 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



has done much for the English language by its pure and 
strong English ; simple, yet dignified in style. It has 
continued in use for nearly three hundred years, but will 
probably, in time, give place to the new Revised Version, 
which we will now describe. 

On all sides scholars are willing to grant very great 
excellences to the Authorized Yerson. This being so, some 
may inquire what was the reason for making a new revis- 
ion? Some general remarks may be made about this 
subject. In the first place, we are constantly to remember 
that the original languages in which the Bible was writ- 
ten were Hebrew and Greek, and, consequently, just in 
proportion as we thoroughly understand those languages, 
and carefully study early manuscripts, the more sure will 
we be that we know what it is that God has revealed of 
Himself. Very few, however, have the time, or the nec- 
essary preparation, or the facilities to do this work; but 
the common, every-day reader has the right to demand, 
of the scholars and leaders in Christian thought, that the 
English Bible which he reads shall contain, as near as 
possible, the exact meaning of the original writings. 

Now, it may be well admitted that the men who made 
the Authorized Version, some two and a half centuries 
ago, were learned men, and fully abreast of all the learn- 
ing of the times ; but the Christian scholar of to-day has 
a great many helps to determine just what it was that 
was written by the inspired men of old, that King James' 
revisers did not have. In regard to the New Testament, 
the earliest and most valuable manuscripts have been 
discovered since this revision was made. Though we 
have not been so fortunate as to find any of the earlier 
manuscripts of the Old Testament than they had, yet we 
have a number of early translations that were unknown 



THE BIBLE. 



33 



to them. They had but one text of the first translation 
of the Pentateuch, known as the Septuagint. We have 
now two texts of this translation, printed much earlier 
than the one they used. So, too, the translation made in 
the second century into the language spoken in Syria, 
was unknown to them, as it was not printed in Europe 
until 1645. A number of other instances of this kind 
could be mentioned. 

But the general advance in learning since that time 
is a very great help. The knowledge of Hebrew gram- 
mar has increased to a wonderful extent since 1611. 
The new science of comparative philology has come into 
existence since then. This affords a wonderful insight 
into the finer meaning of Hebrew words and phrases. 
Our knowledge of Oriental lands and customs has been 
greatly extended of late years. And, finally, we must 
observe that the English language itself has been greatly 
changed in the course of time, and many expressions 
used by the revisers have become obsolete, and it was 
necessary to replace them by words in e very-clay use. 
This condition of things was so generally recognized by 
scholars that, in 1870, a committee was formed in Eng- 
land for the purpose of revising the Bible. This com- 
mittee extended invitations to sixty-seven of the most 
distinguished Biblical scholars of England; and also 
solicited the help of American scholars. Thirty-four of 
these, not confined to any denomination, all eminent for 
their learning, formed the American committee. Both 
of these committees subdivided into two companies; 
one of which took up the Old Testament, and one the 
New. This work continued for ten years. The results 
arrived at by both the British and American commit- 
tees were compared, and, if possible, the differences 

3 A 



34 THE BIBLE COMPANION. 

adjusted. As the fruit of these labors, the revised New 
Testament was given to the public in 1881, and the Old 
Testament in 1885. 

In comparing the new and the old revisions, we notice 
at once the absence of the familiar verse division. Wo 
need only stop to consider that the division into verses 
was not made by the writers of the Bible. Whatever 
has been done in this direction has been the work of 
good men, aiming to find some ready means of reference. 
Of course, any written composition must be broken up 
into sections, paragraphs, and sentences, in order to be 
easily understood. The only question is whether the 
older division into verses is the best that could be made ; 
and the same is true, though in a less degree, in regard 
to the division into chapters. We know that there is a 
great deal of poetry in the Bible. There are whole books 
written in this style ; and, in the prose books, there are 
quotations from the poetical books. In the new revision 
we notice a difference in the printing of poetry and 
prose. This must commend itself to all as being a great 
improvement. 

And yet when we come to examine the language of the 
new revision, we quickly see how little real change has 
been made. Not a single important doctrine of the Chris- 
tian world is changed. The casual reader would scarcely 
notice any change in the words of the two versions. 
Here and there he will notice slight changes. On inspec- 
tion he will generally find that the change renders the 
meaning of the passage clearer, or he may at any rate 
rest assured that, in the opinion of the eminent scholars 
who composed the revision committee, the new reading 
better expresses in English the meaning of the Hebrew 
or Greek words used by the inspired writers. 



THE BIBLE. 



35 



We have thus far given, in very general terms, of 
course, a brief history of the Bible and its translation. 
Far more important points are now before us. What 
reasons have we for considering the Bible the Word of 
God? And in what sense is it the "pillar of cloud by 
day and fire column by night," which is to guide us 
through this life? It is not enough to point out that 
millions have found in its pages consolation for earthly 
woes. This is, indeed, a blessed fact; but the inquiring 
mind has a right to know the grounds on which they 
accept its statements as true. It is not enough that its 
pages have been the source from whence so many of our 
wisest and best men and women have drawn the inspira- 
tion which made their lives beautiful examples for us to 
follow. This is freely admitted, and yet no one can 
object if the earnest seeker demands other grounds. 

There have always been doubters, who refuse to 
accept the testimony of others. It is surely the part 
of wisdom to try and answer their inquiries. This is 
especially true of this age. Our scholars are given to 
questioning nature closely, and they accept no uncertain 
answer. The influence of this method is felt in all de- 
partments of learning. It has invaded the religious 
field, and we are expected to give satisfactory reasons for 
our belief; and, as the Bible is the foundation of our 
religious life, we must be prepared to show why we accept 
it as God's Word. The Protestant world has always 
recognized the right of individual research in matters 
of this kind. We refuse to recognize the right of any 
man, or set of men, to dictate to us what to believe. 
We ask them to lay before us the grounds of their 
conclusions, reserving the right to accept or reject. So, 
in a spirit of all reverence, let us examine the claims 



36 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



of the Bible, or, rather, the claims made in reference 
to it. 

What do we mean when we talk about the inspira- 
tion of the Bible ? We often speak of it as the inspired 
Word of God. It is necessary for us to form clear ideas 
on this point. Probably many earnest Christians, who 
are very free to admit that the Bible is inspired, would 
find it difficult to explain just what it was they admitted. 
Now, this is a question about which eminent divines dif- 
fer. It is, therefore, not best to make statements, except 
they are of such a nature as all will admit; and they 
will, at least, serve to define the question, and so clear 
up our ideas on this point. 

Not many at the present day understand by inspira- 
tion that the Holy Spirit spoke the words, and that the 
writers were merely amanuenses, taking down only what 
was dictated to them. This would be to make the Bible 
a specimen of God's skill as a writer, showing us His 
modes of thought, giving us samples of His logic and 
rhetoric, and acquainting us with His style of historic nar- 
rative. ]\ T o one supposes God has put Himself on record 
before us in that way. We must conclude, then, that 
inspiration did not so control the writers, but that their 
peculiarities of style would manifest itself as much in 
them as in any class of writers. The writers of the four 
gospels were equally inspired to write the memoirs of 
Christ's life; but notice how the mental peculiarity of 
each writer influences his style. We must constantly 
remember that it is not the words of the Bible that are 
inspired, but the writers themselves, or, as one writer ex- 
presses it: "The writers of the Bible were God's pensmen, 
not God's pens." 

Inspiration does not guarantee the truth of the thing 



THE BIBLE. 



37 



the writer records. An illustration will serve to make 
plain our meaning. Job, in sore distress, was visited by- 
three friends, who essayed to explain to him God's meth- 
ods of procedure with man. Now, although these state- 
ments are in the Bible, we are not to take them as true, 
for God expressly declared to them: "Ye have not 
spoken of me the thing that is right." 1 There are also 
unreasonable and untrue statements made in Ecclesiastes. 
When Solomon says: "All (things come) alike to all: 
there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked ; 
to the good and to the clean, and to- the unclean ; to him 
that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not : as is the 
good, so is the sinner ; and he that sweareth, as he that 
feareth an oath;" 2 we know that it is a foolish state- 
ment. What we are to understand in this case is that 
Solomon truly records how foolishly he reasons in his 
backslidden state. We see, then, we are not to take de- 
tached passages of the Bible, and claim them as true 
statements — we are to inquire the surroundings of each 
statement. 

Nor is the fact that the writers were inspired imply 
that we are always to take their words in their strict lit- 
eral sense. In other words, many inspired passages are 
written in figurative language. When the Psalmist says 
of the wicked that "they go astray as soon as they be 
born, speaking lies," 3 we know very well this is not to be 
taken in a literal sense. We also read in another place 
that there were gathered at Jerusalem, "Jews, devout 
men from every nation under heaven;" but we are not to 
understand this in a strict sense, and make it mean that 
there were present persons from India, China, Japan, 
and America. We are not to forget that the writers of 

1 Job xlii, 7. 2 Ecclesiastes ix, 2. 3 Psalm lviii, 3. 



38 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



the Bible, well knowing the people they were addressing, 
delighted to use figurative language. In such cases we 
are at liberty to depart from the primary meaning of 
the words, when, by so doing, we put the teachings in 
accord with what is known to be the truth. 

In narrating Christ's words, which were probably 
spoken in Hebrew, the narrators translated them into 
Greek, but they sometimes used different words to express 
their meaning. Matthew says, in reporting one of Christ's 
sayings : " Wisdom is justified by her works." 1 But Luke, 
in reporting the same speech, translates it thus: "Wis- 
dom is justified of all her children." 2 Wow, any one who 
has translated from one language into another knows 
how hard it is to express the same thought in two differ- 
ent languages. Inspiration, in this and similar cases, does 
not supply the words to be used in translation. 

On the other hand, what do we understand by the 
inspiration of the Bible? W r e understand by it that the 
writers' minds were illuminated, elevated, and directed ; 
that they were divinely helped in writing what they did 
write, and so directed as not to write some things that 
they would naturally have written had they not been 
directed. The Bible way of putting it is: " Holy men 
spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." They 
saw truths that otherwise they would not have seen, and 
were enabled to state some things that they did not well 
understand. Their inspiration did not dispense with the 
necessity of becoming acquainted, as far as they might, 
with the matters about which they wrote. Luke states 
the case well: "It seemed good to me also, having traced 
the course of all things accurately from the first, to 
write unto thee." 3 

1 Matthew xi, 19 (E. V.). 2 Luke vii, 35 (B. V.). » Luke i, 3 (B. V.). 



THE BIBLE. 



39 



We are very free to admit that in a very important 
sense writers of the Bible were specifically qualified for 
their work. Writing, as they were, on one of the grand- 
est themes that ever exercised the pen of man ; engaged, 
as they were, in conveying to fallen humanity a message 
of transcendent import, we unhesitatingly say that their 
inspiration was the highest and purest ever given to man. 
This does not require us to lose sight of the fact that 
good and pure men and women who have given utterance 
to noble sayings, and by " thoughts that burn and words 
that breathe," accomplished much of good, were also in- 
spired. We are told that Christians have an "anointing 
from the Holy One," and know all things. 1 We may 
regard this anointing as in the nature of inspiration, 
though falling far short of the inspiration enjoyed by the 
authors of the Bible. 

Another very important point for us is, in what sense 
is the Bible to be considered infallible? The utmost we 
can attempt to do is to try and set reasonable bounds to 
this inquiry. We, of course, do not mean to say that 
there are no errors of any kind in the Bible. In the first 
place, our English Bible is a translation. This is the 
work of scholars, and granting they were very worthy, emi- 
nent men, yet we are not sure that they translated some 
portions in the best possible way. This translation itself 
rests on copies of still earlier manuscripts. We must 
constantly remember that we have none of the original 
writings of the prophets and apostles — all that exist 
to-day are copies. There is at the present day not a 
book so carefully edited but that it contains typograph- 
ical errors. We can easily see that, at an early day, 
when the only way of securing a copy of a book was to 

1 1 John ii, 20 (R. V.). 



40 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



laboriously rewrite it, letter for letter, word for word, 
such errors would be much more numerous. Though 
careful critical study, by eminent scholars, and comparing 
many early manuscripts, have corrected most of these 
errors, yet no one can deny that errors still exist. The 
most we can say is, that no errors exist which modify 
any of the vital doctrines of Christianity. 

We must also constantly bear in mind that the Bible 
was written for men, and in a human language, but that 
all human languages are necessarily imperfect, and, in a 
degree, the Bible partakes of this imperfection, and, as a 
consequence, on some points it is difficult for us to under- 
stand what the Bible does teach, though wo should also 
add that this doubt does not exist on any point deemed 
by earnest Christians essential to salvation. Hence, 
though we ascribe infallibility to the Bible, we are always 
at liberty to question the conclusions that any man, or 
body of men, draw from its pages. Good men differ in 
regard to the way Christ saves men. This is only one of 
many instances that could be given. It is the duty of all 
to exercise a liberal charity in this regard. The way of 
life is plainly stated. The Bible is, indeed, infallible ; 
but no one has a right to assume that he understands 
just what it teaches on all points. 

We understand, however, that the Bible is infallible 
in this, that it contains a statement of the way in which 
one Avho has sinned may be saved from the penalty of 
sin, and this is an unfailing way. It is so revealed that 
any one, however much he fails in comprehending some 
things about it, will not fail of salvation if he meets the 
conditions as he understands them. The great condition 
of salvation is not correctness of theory, but intentional 
obedience to God. " In every nation he that feareth God 



THE BIBLE. 



41 



and worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him." 1 Any 
one who will take the Bible, and honestly seek to obey 
it, is certainly saved ; and in this it is an infallible guide. 
In the matter of teaching the way of life its statements 
are free from error, even though men fail to rightly com- 
prehend them. 

Though we can scarcely expect, in one brief chapter, 
to do more than indicate a general outline of what we 
have to say, yet we wish to point out some other grounds 
on, which the authority of the Bible rests. Not that they 
are necessary in themselves, but because some candid 
persons ask the question, and they should be answered. 
We have already given a brief historical outline of the 
Bible. In the case of the Old Testament we have no 
other writings of an equally ancient date, so we can not 
refer to them for historical notices of the Old Testament. 
There is no question that at the time of Christ the books 
of the Old Testament, arranged substantially as we have 
them now, were in use, and recognized as God's Word. 
This is shown in several ways : by the translation made, 
before the Christian era, into Greek, known as the Sep- 
tuagint, to which we have already referred. It is also 
shown by the many references made to them by the 
writers of the New Testament. 

There are over one hundred quotations from the Old 
Testament contained in the New. The great majority of 
them correspond exactly with the Hebrew. The others 
diverge somewhat, but the divergences are commonly of 
a formal kind, which can be readily explained, when we 
consider that the writers were acquainted with the Sep- 
tuagint Version, and, in addition, were doubtless pos- 
sessed of manuscripts since lost. One of the earliest ref- 

1 Acts x, 35. 



42 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



erences to the Old Testament by another than a sacred 
writer is found in the writings of Josephus, who lived in 
the time of the apostles. He states that the Jews had 
" twenty-two books of Scripture, . . . whereof five 
were the books of Moses, . . . and thirteen the books 
of the prophets, wherein they wrote the acts of their time, 
. . . and four more containing both hymns to God 
and admonition to men for the betterment of their lives." 

When we come to the New Testament we have abun- 
dant testimony to show that the books were written by 
the men, and at the time, they purport to be. They were 
first in use among the various churches and Christian 
communities to whom they were addressed. Every thing 
indicates that the writings so received by the primitive 
churches were reproduced and disseminated with great 
rapidity, and with a high degree of accuracy, for, during 
the early part of the second century, we find " transla- 
tions of them appearing in widely scattered sections, but 
with surprising agreement, not only in substance of 
thought, but in all important forms of expression, and 
even in minute particulars of style." A Syriac translation 
contained nearly all the books of the New Testament, as 
we have them. This was in use in the valley of the 
Euphrates. At the same time a Latin translation was em- 
ployed in Northern Africa and in Italy. Still another, 
an Egyptian version, dates from the same time. 

The early centuries of the Christian era also wit- 
nessed the productions of many great writers, whose works 
are still in existence. These writers are not altogether 
Christian writers; some of them were pagan, and even 
infidels. In their writings they not only mention the 
books of the New Testament, showing that they were in 
existence and recognized as authoritative by the early 



THE BIBLE. 



43 



churches, but are very liberal in quotations from them. 
So much so, "that we could almost reconstruct the volume 
from their treatises alone." A century or so later copies 
were made from the best manuscripts attainable, and some 
of these copies are still in existence, as has been already 
stated in regard to the manuscript found on Mt. Sinai. 

It is scarcely necessary to point out that the most 
convincing testimony with the Christian world, and it 
ought to be with all, is derived from the pages of the 
Bible themselves and the character they give to God, so 
original, and so unlike the character given by most people 
to their gods. It was written by a people surrounded by 
polytheistic nations; yet it teaches the unity of God. 
While surrounding nations represent their gods as vin- 
dictive, and propitiated by sacrifices, the Bible teaches 
that God is merciful and delights in pardoning. The 
character of Christ, as drawn in the New Testament, is 
evidence that Christ lived out that life before the writers. 
All who have examined the Bible know how voluminous 
and complete is the testimony of this kind. 

The Bible is the religious classic of the common peo- 
ple. It is God's message to honest, intelligent, thought- 
ful men, and a message mainly on one particular subject, 
to wit : the way of escaping from moral evils in which Ave 
are involved, and coming to the enjoyment of peace with 
God, and in our own souls, for time and eternity. The 
Bible is adapted to every possible variety of taste, tem- 
perament, culture, and condition. It has strong reason- 
ing for the intellectual. It takes the calm and contem- 
plative to the well-balanced James, and the affectionate 
to the loving and beloved John. " When the heart is 
borne down with sadness, and enveloped in the shades of 
disappointment, there is no language like that of David 



44 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



or Jeremiah, with which to give vent to the pent-up feel- 
ings; or when joy and hope thrill the soul, there are 
none others that can equal Isaiah and the Avriter of the 
Revelation, in jubilant songs of gladness." 

To multitudes of our race it is not only the foundation 
of their religious life, but it is their daily practical guide 
as well. It has taken hold of the world as no other book 
ever did. Not only is it read in all Christian pulpits, 
but it enters every habitation, from the palace to the cot- 
tage. It is the golden chain which binds hearts together 
at the marriage altar; it contains the sacred formula for 
the baptismal rite ; it blends itself with the daily conver- 
sation, and is the silver thread of all our best reading, 
giving its hue, more or less distinctly, to book, peri- 
odical, and daily paper. On the sea, it goes Avith the 
mariner as His spiritual chart and compass ; and on the 
land, it is to untold millions their pillar-cloud by day and 
their fire-column by night. 

Stand before the Bible as before a mirror, and you 
will see there not only your good traits, but your errors, 
follies, and sins, which you did not imagine were, until 
you thus examined yourself. It is the representative of 
man's best moments, and all that has been around him 
of the highest and best speaks to him out of his Bible. 
If you desire to make constant improvement, go to the 
Bible. It not only sIioavs the Avay of all progress, but it 
incites you to go forward. It opens before you a path 
leading up and still onward, along which good angels will 
cheer you, and all that is good will lend you a helping hand. 

To say nothing of the beauties of the bible — consid- 
ered merely as a literary work, which all classes ac- 
knoAvledge that it possesses — the Christian finds much more 
in its pages. He consults it as the oracle of God ; it is the 



THE BIBLE. 



45 



companion of his best moments, the vehicle of his strong- 
est consolation. There he reads of his Heavenly Father's 
love, of his dying Savior's legacy. There he sees a map 
of his travels through the wilderness of this world, and a 
landscape of the Canaan of religious experience. And 
when, in faith, he climbs on Pisgah's top, and views the 
promised land — his eternal home — his heart begins to 
burn, delighted with the blessed prospect, and amazed at 
the rich and free salvation offered fallen man. 

Even the most thoughtless, the least reverent of men, 
whatever their private convictions may be, should speak 
with reverence of the Bible. Appeal to history: is it not 
true that good and holy men — the best and wisest of 
mankind — the kingly spirits of history — those who sit 
enthroned in the hearts of mighty nations — have been 
witnesses to its influence, have declared it to be, beyond 
compare, the most perfect instrument of humanity? All 
the genius and learning of the heathen world, all the pen- 
etration of Pythagoras, Socrates, and Aristotle, have 
never been able to produce such a system of moral duty, 
and so rational an account of Providence and of man, as 
is to be found in the New Testament. The most learned, 
acute, and diligent student can not, in the longest life, 
obtain an entire knowledge of this one volume. The 
more deeply he works the mine the richer and more 
abundant he finds the ore — new light continually beams 
from this source of heavenly knowledge to direct the 
conduct, and illustrate the works of God and the ways of 
man; and he will at last leave the world confessing that 
the more he studied the Scriptures the fuller conviction 
he had of his own ignorance, and their inestimable value. 



46 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ra^iTEi^s op the Old ©estameot. 



HOEVER reads a book wishes for some knowl- 
edge of the writer. This is especially true' in 
respect to the Bible, which we so greatly prize 
and accept as the guide to our spiritual life, 
and fasten on its teachings our highest hopes, expecting 
by obedience to it to secure our lasting good. The Bible 
occupies a place in the esteem and affections of all who 
claim to be followers of Christ, that no other book has. 
The books of the Old Testament, regarded as given by 
divine authority, by Protestant churches, are thirty-nine. 
The writers of most of them are regarded as known. 
Some are not known. The probable authors of some 
others are generally accepted. One of them, at least, is 
a compilation of the works of several authors; that one 
is the book of Psalms. 

MOSES. 

Moses wrote the first five books — not every verse in 
them, but most of them. Moses was a remarkable man, 
with a wonderful history. He is one of the men raised 
up for special work, and marvelously fitted for that work. 
He was born in Egypt when his people were in great 
trouble. The Pharaoh who had so kindly received 
Joseph had long since passed away. The Jews had 
prospered greatly in Egypt, and their numbers alarmed 
the Egyptian rulers. They were accordingly oppressed, 
their lives rendered bitter with hard and crushing servi- 




WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



49 



tu.de, and finally an effort was made to destroy their 
individuality as a race. Pharaoh passed a decree doom- 
ing to destruction every male child born to the Jews. 
We may be sure that many devices were sought to evade 
this cruel law. Every ingenuity a mother's love could 
suggest was brought into play. 

The mother of Moses, Jochebed, concealed him in the 
house three months, and then she made a little cradle of 
reeds, coated it with bitumen, and hid it in the flags 
that grew along the border of the river Wile. The king's 
daughter, coming down to bathe, as was her custom, found 
this little cradle and its contents. Her heart was touched 
with pity for the little child, and she determined to 
adopt it. Miriam, Moses' sister, who was watching from 
a distance, now proposed to bring a nurse for the child. 
Consent being given, she brought her own mother, who 
thus tended to Moses until he was old enough to be given 
into the care of his royal foster-mother. He was now 
brought up and educated as a member of the royal 
family. We may be sure his education was as good as 
could be given at that time. He probably understood the 
hieroglyphics of Egypt, and could write, probably, more 
than one language. From the account of him, as given 
by Josephus, we judge he had also military training, and 
some experience as a military leader. 

He could not forget the teachings of his mother, and 
the instincts of race. We are not told of the events of 
his younger days. When forty years old he beheld an 
Egyptian beating one of his countrymen, and in hi- 
indignation he killed the Egyptian. This came to the 
ears of Pharaoh, and Moses had to flee from Egypt. 
The Bible says he went to the land of Midian. This 
was probably Arabia, where he lived for forty years, in the 



50 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



vicinity of Sinai and Horeb. Thus he became acquainted 
with many localities where the Israelites afterward so- 
journed. He lived the life of a shepherd. Married the 
daughter of a shepherd, and kept his father-in-law's flocks. 

We may well suppose his mind constantly dwelt on 
the condition of his countrymen in Egypt. The region 
where he lived was one uniting the grand scenery of the 
mountains with the solitary grandeur of the desert. 
Versed as he was in the lore of the Egyptians, and 
acquainted with the traditions of his race, he must 
have pondered over the promises of God to his people. 
JSTot until forty years had rolled by was he ap]3rised by 
God of the wonderful mission he Avas to perform. The 
angel of the Lord appeared to him, in the burning, yet 
unconsumed bush, and announced Himself as "the God 
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," told him he had seen the 
afflictions of the children of Israel in the land of Egypt, 
and that He would deliver them out of bondage and bring 
them into a land "flowing with milk and honey;" which, 
to an Oriental mind, conveys an idea of a land of great 
fertility. 

Then we read of the series of wonderful events, the 
punishments inflicted upon the Egyptians, before that 
stubborn people would consent to let the children of 
Israel go free. But consent was finally obtained, and the 
Israelites, now numbering a mighty host, went forth from 
Egypt. At Sinai he received the law, and was permitted 
to commune with God as no prophet has since been per- 
mitted. He conducted the people to the bank of the 
Jordan, in the land of Moab, viewed the land of promise 
from Mount Pisgah, and died alone. Some suppose, like 
Elijah, he was taken to heaven. We know too little to 
affirm much on this point. He was afterward seen by 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



51 



Peter, James, and John, on the Mount of Transfiguration, 
talking with Christ. Such is a brief outline of the life of 
the man to whom is ascribed the authorship of the first 
five books of the Bible. Each of these books serves a 
distinct purpose. 

GENESIS. 

In Genesis we have given an outline of creation, a 
brief history of men till the time of Abraham, after which 
it is mainly a history of the selected family, his descend- 
ants, the Jews. In saying that Moses wrote this book, 
it is not meant that some parts of it were not taken from 
earlier written documents. For, at the time of Moses, 
the Jews must have had documents and traditions, and 
he was acquainted with both. But he was doubtless 
divinely commissioned to put them in shape for future 
inspection. In another chapter we will speak of the 
bearings which the earlier portions of this book have on 
science. We simply wish to say that God's design in 
Genesis was not to teach scientific facts, but to impart to 
man clear ideas of Himself, to introduce the subject of 
human sin, and point out the way of salvation. The 
main part of the book treats of the selection of Abraham, 
God's covenant with him, and the history of his descend- 
ants until they arrive in Egypt. 

EXODUS. 

Exodus is a history of the departure of the tribes of 
Israel from Egypt. In Genesis, Abraham is the heroic 
human figure ; in Exodus it is Moses himself. One writer, 
contrasting these two men, says: "One was the father of 
the chosen race, the other its law-giver. To one it owed 
its distinctive individuality as a tribe; under the leader- 



52 



THE BIBLE COMPAXIOX. 



ship of the other it became a nation." Under Abraham 
and his grandson Jacob, the Hebrews, few in number, 
had journeyed as shepherds from Chaklea to Egypt, 
where they were received as guests by a compassionate 
king. Under Moses and his successor, Joshua, they were 
freed from the yoke of a cruel oppressor, and entered 
the promised land as conquerors. Abraham practiced 
and taught his family the worship of the one true God, 
Moses clothed that worship with an appropriate and im- 
pressive ritual. These two mighty men stand forth thus 
boldly in the narrative of the Holy Writ, and about 
them are clustered, like groups upon the canvas of a 
great painting, the numerous personages necessary for the 
fullness of the sacred history. A portion of this book is 
historical, telling us of the wonderful series of events 
leading to the liberation of the children of Israel from 
Egypt, acquainting us with their wanderings in the wilder- 
ness, recording their sins and the mercy of God toward 
them. A large part of it is concerned with the Mosaic 
law and the institution of the Tabernacle. It opens up 
more fully the way of salvation from sin by the onerous 
system of observances and sacrifices, which were our 
tutor to bring us down to Christ, the real Savior. This 
office of tutor was that of the Mosaic Ritual. 

LEVITICUS. 

Leviticus is almost entirely taken up with the law. 
A small portion only is historical, and acquaints us with 
the consecration of Aaron for the priesthood, and the 
destruction of his sons Nadab and Abihu for presuming 
to offer "strange fire;" that is, fire not taken from the 
altar. The law is minutely laid down. We have, first, 
laws regulating the sacrifices and offerings for all offenses 



WEITEES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 53 

and for all classes of persons ; then- we have the distinc- 
tion between clean and unclean beasts. By these laws 
the Israelites were forbidden to eat certain classes of 
animals, birds, fishes, and creeping things. Rules were 
also given for discerning leprosy and similar diseases. 
Laws marking the separation between the Israelites and 
the heathen, and laws concerning the priests, holy days, 
and festivals, were laid down. In short, this book is 
chiefly devoted to ritual and ceremony. The laws and 
ordinances are so numerous and minute that it was nec- 
essary to have a body of trained priests to properly 
expound them and urge their enforcement. For this 
purpose the tribe of Levi was selected. In the book of 
Leviticus we miss the poetic and dramatic elements 
which are found in nearly all the books of the Old Tes- 
tament. This is an account of the peculiar subjects of 
which it treats. A close study of this book does much 
in revealing to us the real state of advancement among 
the Jews at this period. The laws of any people are a 
fair index of their culture, because they arise from their 
peculiar wants, and are, therefore, framed in accordance 
With their surroundings, manners, and customs. 

NUMBEES. 

Numbers is the fourth book of Moses, and is so called 
because of the numbering of the people, or, as we would 
describe it, taking the census. The order of the tribes, 
both for the camp and the march, was determined with 
precision. It contains some new rules and regulations, 
and repeats some of the old. The historical part tells us 
of the scouts sent on in advance to survey the Holy 
Land. The reports they carried back were of such a 
nature that the Israelites lost faith in the divine prom- 



54 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ises that they should be given the land, and resolved to 
return to Egypt. For this they were condemned to wan- 
der in the wilderness forty years, until all the children 
of Israel, who had thus provoked the Lord, had died — 
only their children were to be permitted to enter in and 
possess the land. A brief account of their wanderings is 
also given. Directions are given as to the division of the 
land among the children of Israel, and six cities were set 
aside to be cities of refuge. 

DEUTERONOMY. 

Deuteronomy is the last book of the Pentateuch. The 
book itself is largely a repetition of the law. Moses 
knew that, as for himself, he had but little longer to live, 
so he rehearsed the law to Israel, and accompanied it 
with explanations, exhortations, and warnings. " It is 
remarkakable how, in this series of solemn addresses, the 
poetic utterances, which are more or less strongly per- 
ceptible in all the Hebrew prophets, stand out in bolder 
relief as Moses nears his end. Amongst these are the 
song on the eve of the conquest ; the song of battle and 
warning, by which Joshua was to be cheered; and the 
blessing, which might almost be termed the war-cry of 
the several tribes. The name by which God is called by 
Moses, in the song of Moses, is ' The Rock.' Many 
times, in the course of this single hymn, this expressive 
figure is repeated. It might have been originally sug- 
gested by the crags of Sinai; but it has been certainly 
carried, from the time of Moses, m the psalms and hymns 
of the people of God, to regions as dissimilar in aspect 
as remote in distance from its birth-place." 

The five books, of which we have now presented an 
outline, are called, collectively, the Pentateuch, a word 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 55 

meaning five books or volumes. The existence of these 
five books at a very early date is undoubted. Passages 
in nearly all the remaining books of the Old Testament 
refer to them, and, indeed, the whole body of the Old 
Testament writings is in accordance with this law. Thev 
greatly molded the Jewish nation. In regard to their 
authorship we wish to say that it, of course, makes no 
difference, as to their validity to be considered part of 
God's Word, whether Moses was the author or not. This 
remark is necessary, because some have expressed a 
doubt in this matter. Certainly, if he was not the au- 
thor, we do not know to whom to refer them. None of 
the books claim to have been written by him. He was a 
man eminently fitted for the work, since he was " learned 
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." Passages scattered 
through them show that he certainly did write some 
things for future reference; and it seems to be a fair 
inference that he wrote them all, and to him they are 
generally ascribed. We have already pointed out that 
it may well be admitted that he compiled some docu- 
ments already in existence in writing Genesis, and evi- 
dently the acount of his own death, contained in the last 
chapter of Deuteronomy, was written by some other hand. 

JOSHUA. 

It is not known who wrote this book, nor is there any 
general agreement as to the probable author. It receives 
its name because Joshua is the central figure in the book. 
It is, perhaps, in its present form, a compilation based on 
documents. There are some expressions in it that would 
imply that it was written after the death of Joshua by 
one of his contemporaries. We have first described the 
conquest and occupation of Canaan. This is contained 



56 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



in the first twelve chapters. The literary style of the 
writer of these twelve chapters is such as to induce the 
belief they were written by an eye-witness. From the 
twelfth to the twenty-third chapters we have an account 
of the division of the conquered territory among the vari- 
ous tribes not previously provided for in the territory 
taken on the eastern bank of Jordan. Reading the 
description of the land allotted to each tribe, we must 
conclude that they sent out proper officers to survey the 
same. The last two chapters contain an account of the 
last addresses and counsel of Joshua, his death, and burial. 

JUDGES. 

This is also an anonymous book. It covers a period 
of about three hundred years, though some make it 
longer. 1 It is a very singular book in many respects. 
Excepting references in the song of Deborah, 2 to the 
appearance of Jehovah upon Mount Sinai, there is noth- 
ing in the book of Judges that refers to the law of Moses, 
to the priesthood, or to the Levitical rites, and only two 
mentions are made of prophets. 3 It is a fragmental his- 
tory of a most interesting period in the life of the Jewish 
race. The modern idea of government, founded upon 
territory, was utterly unknown in the earlier periods of 
the world's history. At the very dawn of history the 
Mediterranean nations were engaged in the task of sub- 
stituting for the tribal state of society, under which they 
had formerly lived, a government better fitted to advance 
them in civilization. It was a problem requiring, in 
their case, several centuries for its solution. 

The Bible clearly reveals to us the tribal state of 

■De Wette makes it about four hundred years. 2 V, 4, 5. 

3 IV, 4, and vi, 8. 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



57 



society among the Jews. Many of the laws of Moses, 
especially those relating to inheritance, can be easily 
understood if we will only recollect that the Jews were 
living under a tribal form of government. 1 In times of 
great danger they would, as closely related tribes will, 
confederate together for the common good. The great 
leaders — Moses and Joshua— had brought them up out 
of Egypt into the land which was promised them for an 
inheritance. Once settled there, the confederacy would 
naturally disintegrate. Each tribe was independent 
within its own territory. The instinct of confederating 
together for the common good would certainly revive in 
the presence of great danger. The emergency would 
bring forward some leader who would achieve temporary 
power, which ceased with his death, or the passing away 
of the danger. 

For a period of three hundred years, more or less, 
this was the state of affairs among the Jews. Some of 
these great leaders, perhaps all, are briefly mentioned in 
this book as judges. They are the central figures around 
which the principal events of the times are grouped. 
There were tribal dissensions and tribal rivalries. Some- 
times the predominance was with one tribe, and some- 
times with another. It was emphatically a transitional 
period. Here and there are recorded events showing us 
the crude ideas entertained by the people, such, for in- 
stance, as the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter. It was 
strange they did not understand such a sacrifice was not 
required at their hand. Scenes bright and dark follow 



"■The last chapter of the book of Numbers is an instance in point. The 
" chief fathers," spoken of in the first verse, evidently denotes the tribal council. 
Inheritance, we notice, was in the male line. The children belonged to the gens of 
the father. 



58 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



each other in quick succession. We must remember the 
time in which they lived, the people by whom they were 
surrounded. As the children of Israel receded in time 
from the wonderful manifestations of God to their fore- 
fathers in the wilderness, it is not strange that they 
lapsed from time to time into idolatry. 

Though we do not know the author of this book, yet 
a study of it reveals some interesting points. The part 
commencing with the seventeenth chapter, to the end, 
describing two disgraceful scenes, is, by some, supposed 
to have been added at a later date than the remainder 
of the book. The thirtieth verse of the eighteenth chap- 
ter inclines some to think this part was not written until 
after the captivity of the kingdom of Israel, or that it 
could not have been written earlier than 721 B. C. ; but 
the larger part of it was probably written during the 
time of Samuel's life, and the Jews ascribe the author- 
ship to him. 

RUTH. 

We are ignorant of the name of the author of this 
book also. It was probably written during the time of 
David. In the Hebrew canon this book is united with 
Judges ; in our Bible it appears as a separate book. We 
notice at once the difference in the surroundings of the 
people of Israel in these two books. In Judges we have 
given a picture of turbulent times, a transitional period, 
during which the tribes were advancing toward a more 
settled form of government. Ruth was written after the 
establishment of the monarchy, and before the people had 
become rich and powerful under Solomon, and, therefore, 
had lost some of the simplicity of the days of David. 
The surroundings are peaceful and quiet. We catch 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



59 



glimpses of Jewish domestic customs, and have portrayed 
the surroundings of a prosperous farmer. The principal 
design of the book seems to have been to furnish a 
history of the ancestors of David, who were also the 
ancestors of Christ. 

FIRST AND SECOND SAMUEL. 

These are probably but one book, and as such they 
were always reckoned by the Jews. They are anony- 
mous. They bear this name because the earlier portion 
is devoted to the history of Samuel. Samuel was the 
last of the judges, and the greatest personage who had 
appeared since Moses. We are given an account of his 
childhood, and of his consecration to the service of the 
Lord. He had long been recognized prophet, and 
in a season of sore distress the people besought him to 
cry unto the Lord in their behalf, and, as the narrative 
says, "the Lord heard him," and the Philistines were 
defeated with great loss. So Samuel was made judge. 
He was the only one who had the confidence of all the 
tribes, who could arrange their disputes. The develop- 
ment of national feeling was fast setting toward the 
establishment of a kingdom, and at length Samuel was 
requested to choose for them a king. 

We have given in these two books much historical 
matter. The life of Samuel is outlined. The establish- 
ment of the kingdom is mentioned, and an outline of its 
history is presented, bringing it down to near the close 
of David's reign. The bond that held the tribes together 
Avas yet feeble. They did not forget their former inde- 
pendent existence, so we read of internal jealousies and 
rebellions. It was under David that Jerusalem was 
finally subdued ; there the court was removed, and thither 



60 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



the Ark of the Lord was carried with great pomp and 
rejoicing, and from thenceforth it has remained the holy 
city of the Jews. As this book contains no account of 
David's death, it was probably written before that event. 
The writer probably drew some of his materials from 
existing documents. Some of the apparent or alleged 
discrepancies probably arise from the different accounts 
which the author copied from in his work. In the fifty- 
fourth verse of the seventeenth chapter, we read that 
David carried the head of Goliath to Jerusalem. This 
must be an interpolation by some later writer. Jerusalem 
did not come into the possession of the Hebrews till a 
later clay. 

FIRST AND SECOND KINGS. 

These are also but one book, as the Jews reckoned, 
and are without a known author. This book, for we will 
speak of them as but one book, takes up the thread of 
the historical narrative with the events leading to the 
crowning of Solomon, even before the death of his father, 
David. It was under Solomon that the Hebrew kingdom 
reached its zenith of power and commenced its decline. 
The time covered by this book is not far from four 
hundred and fifty years, so but the merest historical 
outline could be given. 

The glory and riches of Solomon are dwelt on at 
length. His was a period mostly free from wars. It 
was marked by its magnificence, its foreign alliances, its 
naval expeditions, and the erection of the world-renowned 
temple. But before its close the decline of the Hebrew 
nation had already set in. The wealth and magnificence 
of the court, the foreign alliances, and the activity of the 
people in commercial pursuits, must have brought in 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



61 



many foreign customs, acquainted the people more 
particularly with the religious beliefs of the surrounding 
nations, and caused them to regard with complacency 
many idolatrous customs and habits, the more so as 
Solomon himself became addicted to them. 

His rule was essentially a despotism. His subjects 
were tribes who had not forgotten their former more 
independent existence. It is not strange, then, that at his 
death his kingdom divided. Ten of the tribes rose in 
open rebellion, and established a separate independent 
kingdom. Henceforth, the Hebrew people, whose fore- 
fathers had journeyed from Egypt together, who, in the 
long and troublesome period of the Judges, had fre- 
quently united for the common good; existed as two 
independent nations, often at war with each other. The 
tribe of Juclah, and portions of Benjamin, formed the 
kingdom of Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem. The 
other tribes — excepting, perhaps, Simeon, who disappears 
from history at an early date, probably absorbed by 
Judah — formed the kingdom of Israel, of which Samaria 
became the ultimate capital. 

From the end of the eleventh chapter of First Kings 
we are given an historical outline of these two kingdoms. 
The kingdom of Israel embraced idolatry almost from 
the start. Its first king, Jeroboam, had been banished 
some years before to Egypt by Solomon, where he lived 
in great favor with Pharaoh, and, as a matter of course, 
became acquainted with the religion of Egypt. When he 
was made king of Israel, he set up two golden calves for 
the people to worship, and thus lead the way to other 
forms of worship, as that of Baal. We are given a brief 
record of the nineteen kings of Israel. Not one of them 
but what was given to the worship of idols, and some of 



62 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



them were very wicked men. Many of them were success- 
ful usurpers, some great military leaders. The nation itself 
had been steadily sinking into idolatry. They appear to 
have completely forgotten their former belief in one God. 
The end came at last. The Assyrian army entered Gali- 
lee, driving everything before it. Samaria, after with- 
standing a siege of three years, at length fell before the 
forces of Shalmaneser. The survivors who had not fled 
unto foreign lands were taken away captives; and thus 
the ten tribes, as a distinctive people, were blotted out. 

The kingdom of Judah, during the time covered by 
this book, was ruled over by nineteen kings also. Of 
eleven of these, we are told they "did evil in the sight 
of the Lord;" only eight did that which was right. Of 
these eight, most of them allowed the people to practice 
idolatry, only two making an effort to root it out. The 
time at length came when the kingdom of Judah was to 
end. Under its last four kings its existence as a separate 
kingdom was conditioned on the payment of tribute, first 
to Egypt, but later to Babylon. In the eighth year of 
the reign of Jehoiachin, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 
carried him away captive to Babylon, with "all the 
princes and all the men of valor, even ten thousand 
captives," including all the skilled artisans. Only the 
poorest sort of people remained, and over this remnant 
Zedekiah was made king. He attempted a revolt. The 
end came speedily. Jerusalem was sacked, the temple 
was plundered and burned, and the people were taken 
away to Babylon. 

Thus fell the kingdom of Judah. We shall see 
subsequently that these tribes were not blotted out, as 
were the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel. Their 
descendants were allowed to return to Jerusalem and 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



63 



rebuild the city, but they were ever afterward subject to 
a foreign power. Four hundred and fifty years later, for 
a brief period, they regained their independence, and 
founded what is known in history as the Asmonean 
Kingdom. This had but a brief duration ; it soon became 
absorbed in the Roman Empire. 

The book of Kings, which gives us this brief outline 
of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, was probably 
written near the close of the exile in Babylon. As we 
have said, the author is unknown. Some have supposed 
it to be the work of Jeremiah, which, however, is not 
very likely. The author was largely a compiler. He 
expressly mentions some of the sources of his informa- 
tion. These are the "Book of the Acts of Solomon," 
"The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel," and "The 
Chronicles of the Kings of Judah." During this period 
there were, of course, living many prophets. Some of 
their writings have come down to us as separate books 
of the Bible, which we will soon mention. But we are 
given quite full accounts of the prophets Elijah and 
Elisha, the prophets who repeatedly warned the king- 
dom of Israel of its danger. 

FIRST AND SECOND CHRONICLES. 

These constitute in reality but one book, and were so 
reckoned by the Jews. Their author is unknown. Jew- 
ish traditions assigns them to Ezra, but we have no 
positive evidence on that point. Anciently these books 
were called "Work of the Days," or the "Annals." They 
received their present name from Jerome. Close inspec- 
tion of them shows that they were written at compara- 
tively a late day, probably near the time of Malachi. 
The genealogy given in the twenty-fourth verse of the 



64 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



third chapter of First Chronicles would indicate a still 
later date; some, however, think this passage is a later 
addition. The probable design of the author was to 
impress on the Jews the fact that God blessed His people 
when they observed His law, and worshiped as directed by 
Moses ; so he draws up an outline of their national his- 
tory, and points out the connection between national 
observance of religion and national prosperity. 

He wrote after the exile, when the kingdom of Israel 
had hopelessly passed away, and, further, he could draw 
no encouraging lesson from its history, so he is virtually 
silent in regard to it. He dwells, however, on the history 
of Judah, and especially of the wisest and best of its kings, 
such as David, Solomon, Asa, Jehosophat, Joash, Ileze- 
kiah, and Josiah. It will thus be seen that the same 
ground is covered by the author of Kings ; but we notice, 
if we compare the two accounts, a difference in detail, 
which, indeed, we expect when Ave reflect on the prob- 
able design of the author of Chronicles. The general 
purpose of Chronicles is to show the best side of the 
kings of Judah. No mention, therefore, is made of 
David's sin in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah ; 
neither is mention made of Solomon's idolatry. Some 
additions are made. We are told of the preparations 
made by King David for the building of the temple, and 
of the advice he gave Solomon on this subject. 

An important part of this work, written, as it was, 
after the exile, was to give the genealogy of the returned 
exiles, with especial reference to the lines from which 
the Messiah was to come; to facilitate the re-establish- 
ment of the ancient worship by detailing the pedigree, 
the functions, and the order of the priests and Levites; 
and to describe the original apportionment of lands, that 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



65 



the respective families might be confirmed in their 
ancient inheritance. So the first eight chapters are taken 
up with genealogies. 

The author of Chronicles doubtless served the pur- 
pose of this writing well; but he seems to have made 
some errors in his figures, or, if he did not, his copyists 
did. These errors have nothing to do with the credibil- 
ity of the book, since, in the matter of copying, it is very 
easy to make mistakes in figures. He makes the gold 
and silver gathered by David for ornamenting the tem- 
ple to amount in value to four billion two hundred and 
sixty-five million dollars, an utterly preposterous sum. 
At the command of King David, Joab numbered the 
Jews, or took a census. The author of Chronicles gives, 
as the result of this census, a number two hundred and 
seventy thousand more than the author of Samuel gives 
for the same census. As a punishment on David for 
taking this census a grievous plague was sent on the 
children of Israel, which was stayed after three days, 
and David commanded to build an altar on the thresh- 
ing-floor of Araunah. Chronicles states the price paid 
for this floor as six hundred shekels of gold; Samuel 
states the price at fifty shekels of silver. We must 
not forget that points of agreement between independent 
Scripture writers are almost innumerable, but points of 
differences are but few, and that these points of differ- 
ences are on unimportant subjects. 

EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 

These two books also were considered by the Jews as 
but one volume. The thread of the historical outline 
has been brought down to the spoliation of Jerusalem 

1 Compare 2 Samuel xxiv, 9, 24, with 1 Chronicles xxi, 5, 25. 



66 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



and carrying the inhabitants captured to Babylon. At 
this time Babylon was the capital of a Chaldean Empire, 
The last four verses in Second Kings relate a pleasing inci- 
dent in the captivity of Jehoiachin ; that is, the kindness 
shown him by the Chaldean king. This event is sup- 
posed to have been in the year 562 B. C. A period of 
twenty-five years now passes by. Some of the events of 
this period are referred to in the other books of the Old 
Testament. 

One very important event, especially for the Jews, 
was the overthrow of the Babylonian power by the Medes 
and Persians. This topic forms a most interesting chap- 
ter in ancient history ; but we can only point out the 
influence of this conquest over the Jews. The earlier 
Persian kings were rather magnanimous in their treat- 
ment of conquered people. The blow which destroyed 
the empire of the Babylonians struck off the fetters of 
the Jews. In their case their religion was a strong 
factor in their favor. From the very earliest times a 
sensuous idol worship had prevailed in the Euphrates 
Valley and throughout Asia Minor; and we have seen 
how even the Jews, in spite of their wonderful experi- 
ence, were continually going after strange gods. The 
religion of Persia was Zoroasterism, to which we will refer. 
They despised every form of idolatry, and especially so 
the beliefs of the Babylonians. We can at once see they 
would regard the beliefs of the Jews with much favor. 
It is not strange, then, as soon as Cyrus was securely 
seated on his throne, that he made a decree which not 
only permitted the Jews to return to Palestine, but com- 
manded that they be helped on the way, and delivered 
to them great quantities of gold and silver vessels which 
Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem. 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



67 



In accordance with this decree a large band, including, 
with their servants, nearly fifty thousand people, under 
the direction of Zerubbabel, returned to Jerusalem 536 
B. C. After some delay they rebuilt the temple. Sev- 
enty-nine years later a second band, under the lead of 
Ezra, came from Babylon, numbering about six thousand. 
Ezra is described as being " a ready scribe in the law of 
Moses." He was evidently commissioned by the king 
of Persia to act as governor. He corrected many abuses. 
It is generally considered that Ezra wrote a portion of 
this book ; but, in its present form, it seems to be a com- 
pilation by some other hand. A portion was written in 
Chaldee, the ancient language of Babylon. The first 
band, under Zerubbabel, had some trouble with the colo- 
nies living in Samaria. They represented to the Persian 
king that the Jews would rebel as soon as the city was 
rebuilt. The correspondence in reference to this mat- 
ter — the actions of the Persian king — his final decree — 
also the decree of Darius, seventy-nine years later, com- 
missioning Ezra — are the portions written in Chaldee. 1 

The book of Nehemiah is a continuation of that of 
Ezra, though it repeats to some extent. It gives us an 
outline of the important part which Nehemiah took in 
the re-establishment of the Jews in Palestine. Nehe- 
miah himself is supposed to have written the first part 
of it, but it was evidently compiled by the same author 
as Ezra. Nehemiah was cup-bearer to the Persian king. 
This was a very important office in ancient times. He 
heard of the unfortunate condition of Jerusalem, and 
sought of the king permission to go and "build it," 
which was given. Invested with authority, he arrived at 
Jerusalem about twelve years after Ezra, and about 

'From iv, 7, to vi, 18, and vii, 12 to 26. 
5 



68 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ninety years after the first colony under Zerubbabel. 
He seems to have been a man of great energy and abil- 
ity: he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, reformed many 
abuses, and re-established the national religion in accord- 
ance with the law of Moses. 

A recent writer tells us the Jews " submitted to the 
guidance of Nehemiah as they had done to no other 
since the days of Moses and Joshua. They recognized 
his statesmanship, and cheerfully acquiesced in the ap- 
pointments he made to official positions, and the ample 
regulations he made for the maintenance of the temple 
service, the defense of Jerusalem, and the preservation 
of public order. The new spirit he infused in the nation 
was, in fact, marvelous. It endured for ages; . . . 
he reformed with a vigorous hand the abuses that had 
grown up through the weakness of Eliashib, the high 
priest ; the rapacity of the rulers and tradesmen ; the 
profanation of the Sabbath, and intermarriage with the 
heathen ; . . . as a human agent, working out the 
divine will ; as a man, uniting energy with piety. As a 
patriot and statesman, he was one of the most extraor- 
dinary characters of the later period of the sacred story." 

There are indications that the same hand compiled 
the two books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. If 
so, the design of the author seems to have been to fur- 
nish the Jews, living after the exile, a short outline 
history of their nation, to draw from it the lesson of 
the necessity of observing the law of Moses, and to 
trace the genealogies of the people. They were all 
written after the exile, and, possibly, quite a long while 
after. It will be noticed that the genealogy given in 
Chronicles 1 comes down to the second generation after 

1 1 Chronicles .in, 19-21. 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



69 



Zerubbabel. So, too, the genealogy given in Nehemiah 1 
comes down to Jadclua, the fifth generation from Jeshua,- 
who went with Zerubbabel in the first colony. Now, 
this would bring the narrative down to about the time 
of Alexander the Great. Indeed, Jaddua is supposed to 
be the high priest who went forth to meet Alexander. 
The question of time is immaterial. We are at liberty 
to accept any date that seems supported by good evidence. 

ESTHER. 

The books Ave have thus far been considering are 
properly the historical books of the Old Testament. 
They tell us largely of the history of the Jewish people, 
the wonderful manner in which God dealt Avith them, 
and the punishments which came upon them for their 
persistence in idolatry. We have read of the blotting 
out of the ten tribes, the captivity of the tribes com- 
posing the kingdom of Judah, and the subsequent return 
of many of their descendants. The remaining books of 
the Old Testament are evidently Avritten with a different 
object in view. Many of them are prophetical books; 
some are to enforce moral truths, and one is that won- 
derful collection of hymns Ave call the Psalms. 

We must understand that many of the JeAvs did not 
take advantage of the permission given them to return 
to Palestine. They preferred to remain in Babylon and 
in the various provinces of the Persian Empire. This 
is not at all singular when we reflect on the length of 
time they had remained in captivity. Two generations 
had passed away. The book of Esther relates an inci- 
dent in the history of the JeAvs who chose to remain in 
Persia. The author of this book is not known. Its 

1 Nehemiah xii, 12. 



70 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



evident design seems to be to show that God's care was 
still over his people, even though they were not living 
in Palestine, but were scattered throughout the many 
provinces of Persia. We may well believe the story is 
historically true. The Ahasuerus is generally thought 
to be the Xerxes of history. There are some objections 
to this view, but they can be fairly explained away. 
Certainly the incidents mentioned are fully in keeping 
with the character of Xerxes, as disclosed in history. 
The story is told with much skill, and in such a way as 
to excite a deep interest in the reader. The feast of 
Purim, celebrated to this day among the Jews, is in 
commemoration of the happy deliverance recorded in 
this book. 

JOB. 

This closes the list of books that are usually regarded 
as anonymous. It is known neither who wrote it, nor 
when, nor where it was written. It abounds in refer- 
ences to localities in Egypt and Iclumea, the district lying 
between Palestine and Egypt; but its idioms, as is the 
case with nearly all the poetry of the Old Testament, 
are often Aramean, or the language spoken to the north 
and east of Palestine; sometimes they approach the 
Arabic. Much of its style reminds us again of the 
Psalms and Proverbs. As to the time when it was 
written, some think it is tlie oldest book in the Bible, 
while others would refer it to as late a date as the Chal- 
daic period, when the Babylonians became the virtual 
masters of Palestine, which would bring it later in time 
than 610 B. C. As to its author all is conjecture. 
Formerly quite a number thought that Moses himself 
wrote it. In the case of most of the other anonymous 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



71 



books we can generally tell when or where they were 
written, but, in the case of Job, we know but little 
about it. 

Except in the beginning and end of the book, it is a 
poem. There is a wonderful play of fancy and power of 
description. The lesson taught in the book is very 
plain. The writer wished to correct the impression that 
a man's present condition — his degree of prosperity — 
was a criterion of character. This is brought out very 
plainly. We are not to look upon sickness, sorrow, and 
afflictions as evidences, of God's displeasure, any more 
than we are to look upon the happiness and prosperity 
of individuals as proofs of divine approval. "The book 
is engaged with the great problem regarding the distri- 
bution of good and evil, especially as viewed in connec- 
tion with the doctrine of righteous retribution in the 
present life. It sets forth the struggle between faith in 
the perfect government of God, and the various doubts 
excited by what is seen and known of the prosperity of 
the many among those who are despisers of God." 

The question has arisen whether we are to consider 
the book as real history, or a parable seeking to convey 
a great moral truth. Both these views have been held. 
It is manifest that this is an immaterial point. The 
Oriental people delight in parables. Christ often em- 
ployed this method of speaking to enforce moral truths. 
In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, language 
is put in the mouths of the principal personages, such as 
would be natural for them to use under the circum- 
stances. There is no impropriety in supposing the book 
of Job to be a parable, told at great length and with 
much force and beauty of expression. The words 
ascribed to the parties, in the dialogues, were such as 



72 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



were true to life. Not only did men entertain such 
notions then, but, unfortunately, many still do hold 
them. There are not wanting, however, those who hold 
that Job was a real historical personage ; they point out 
that there are many details given which are not found 
in parables generally, such as the description of the 
patriarch himself, his family, his property, country, 
friends, etc. ; such details, in short, as mark a history 
rather than a parable. 

PSALMS. 

This book is a collection of inspired songs that have 
cheered the hearts of God's people for ages, and helped 
them in their worship. Many of them are in the sub- 
limest strains of Hebrew poetry, and relate to the 
highest themes about which man may think. They 
inculcate true religion and noble conceptions of God, 
and the spirituality of true worship, and are prized by 
all devout men. In popular language we speak of them 
as the "Psalms of David." No doubt many, who have 
not studied into the matter, are under the impression 
that he wrote them all. The fact is, they are the works 
of several different men, how many is not known, and 
were written at widely different times. David probably 
wrote the majority of them. He is often spoken of as 
the "Sweet Singer of Israel." Two-thirds of all the 
psalms are ascribed to him. All that we know of him 
shows that he had great skill as a musician and a poet. 
It may be said that softness and tenderness characterize 
his psalms. 

The remaining psalms are ascribed to a number of 
different authors. Moses is supposed to have written 
the ninetieth psalm. Jewish writers ascribe more to 



WEITEKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



73 



him, ten in all; 1 but there seems to be no good reason 
for so doing. If we compare the psalm in question with 
two other songs that Moses wrote, we will notice a 
resemblance in language. 2 Solomon's name is given to 
two psalms. 3 The first seems to have been rather for 
him than by him, especially when we notice the last 
verse in it. The descendants of Asaph are especially 
mentioned as being singers; 4 twelve psalms, written at 
different periods, bear his name. So, also, eleven psalms 
are described as belonging to the "Sons of Korah." 
They may, however, have been written by some one 
else, perhaps David, and the heading be only some 
directions about singing them. The psalms are a great 
help in our religious life. No part of the Old Testa- 
ment is so much read, or read with so much profit, as 
this book. " They run through the whole scale of human 
feelings, and touch every chord of human sentiment. 
Like a perfect musical instrument in the hands of a 
consumate artist, they express alike the boldest and the 
most delicate, the most vigorous and the most spiritual, 
the most animate as well as the most profound, feelings 
and thoughts." 

PEOVERBS. 

We are told that Solomon spake three thousand 
proverbs. There is no doubt that the collection known 
as the book of Proverbs contains many of these sayings. 
Scholars have divided this book into sections. From 
the first to the ninth chapter, we have what we may 
call the introduction. It is devoted to the praise of 
wisdom, and exhorts the young to obtain it. Some have 
questioned whether Solomon wrote this part of the book. 

'Frum xc to c. 2 Exodus xv, and Deuteronomy xxxii. 

3 LXXII and cxxvii. 4 Ezra ii, 41. 



74 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



From the tenth to the twenty-fifth, we have a great 
collection of maxims, often unconnected, which teach 
man's duty both in respect to our fellow-men and 
toward God. This is considered the nucleus of the 
whole book, and is doubtless what it professes to be, the 
proverbs of Solomon. It was evidently written during 
the golden age of Israel; it abounds in references to the 
glories of Solomon's reign, and there is no good reason 
for referring it to a later date. 

In the first verse of the twenty -fifth chapter we read: 
"These are also the proverbs of Solomon, which the men 
of Hezekiah, King of Judah, copied out." Now, this 
king did not reign in Judah until two hundred and fifty 
years after Solomon's death. It would seem, however, 
that the concluding part of the book, at least, was com- 
piled by his order from manuscripts left by Solomon. 
Perhaps the whole of the book was arranged by his 
orders. Some repetitions occur ; if not the exact words, 
the thoughts are the same. 1 

The last two chapters of the book profess to be the 
maxims of Agur, and the advice to King Lemuel from 
his mother. Who these personages are is unknown ; we 
have no other record of them. Proverbs is sometimes 
called the "young man's book." It certainly contains 
most excellent maxims and advice, which, if heeded, 
would save the youth from many of the snares laid for 
their feet by those that would entice them to ruin. 

ECCLESIASTES. 

This is one of the books the authorship of which is 
uncertain. It is plain that the writer represents him- 



1 Compare xxi, 9, with xxv, 24; x, 13, with xxvi, 3. Fourteen such examples 
could be given. 



WEITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



75 



self as Solomon, and it was formerly admitted that it 
was writen by him. There are doubts, however, on this 
point not easily removed. We wish to caution the 
reader that, as far as its acceptance as a divinely inspired 
book is concerned, it can make no possible difference 
who was its author, or when it was written. Its lesson, 
of course, remains the same. The style of the book is 
certainly unlike Proverbs. The writer speaks of great 
oppressions, exactions of provincial rulers, exaltation of 
low men to high office, and of the present as inferior to 
the past ; sentiments we would hardly expect to be given 
utterance during Solomon's reign. 1 Neither would Solo- 
mon be apt to say, "I loas king," nor declare that he 
"was wiser and richer than all the kings in Jerusalem 
before him," 2 when his father, David, was the only king 
who had reigned there before him. 

The doubts and speculations expressed in this book 
are unlike anything in any other part of the Bible. 
Perhaps one great lesson it was to teach is the unsatis- 
factory nature of all mere speculations in regard to both 
the present and future life. It is this spirit of specula- 
tion that so thoroughly pervades it that incline some to 
think that it was written by a Jew who had traveled 
and become acquainted with the speculative philosophy 
of Greece, perhaps as late as 425 B. C. If Solomon 
wrote it, or any part of it$ or if it be a statement of his 
speculations, it shows what a sad point he reached in 
his skeptical wanderings from God. If he was the 
author, it must have been written near the close of his 
reign, when he had become weary of pleasure and splen- 
dor, perhaps, also, of life. 



1 Ecclesiastes iv, 1 ; v, 8 ; vii, 10 ; x, 5, 7. 2 Ecclesiastes i, 12, 16, and 

ii, 7, 9. 



76 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



CANTICLES. 

This book has given rise to a great amount of discus- 
sion. As to its authorship, it purports to have been 
written by Solomon. That he is the subject of the book 
seems clear; that he wrote it is not so certain. It was 
undoubtedly written about his time. The language used 
is the Hebrew of his period, not Chaldaic or Aramaic; 
but the style is certainly very unlike Proverbs. In this 
matter we have but little to guide us, and can not be 
sure who wrote it. The book is an amatory poem ; its 
subject is wedded love. As to the lessons designed to 
be taught, opinions greatly differ. A large class regard 
it as an allegory; and it must be remarked that poems 
of this nature are a great favorite with Oriental nations. 
This class thinks it represents the mystical bond between 
Christ and His Church — the mutual love of God and 
His people. Others can not view it as an allegory; but 
the lesson they would draAV from it consists in showing 
how foolishly even a wise man may conduct himself. 
Those who spiritualize it, and regard it as showing the 
love of the Creator for His obedient children, draw many 
beautiful illustrations from its pages. Many, however, 
hesitate to take that view of the book. 

ISAIAH. 

Isaiah was one of the greatest of the prophets, and 
one of the sublimest prophetical poets of any age. In 
point of time, this book was written later than some of 
the other prophetical books ; but it is placed first in the 
list. Of the life of this prophet we know but little. He 
was the son of Amoz, and, according to some Jewish 
traditions, was a brother of King Amaziah; but there 



WEITEES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



77 



seems to be no good reason for such conclusion. He is 
supposed to have lived in Jerusalem. He was married, 
his wife being called a prophetess; not because she was 
a prophet, but the wife of one. He had at least two 
sons, each of whom had a symbolical name. He some- 
times went dressed in sackcloth ; x but we have no reason 
for supposing he was an ascetic. We must consider the 
period in which he lived. He appeared at a sad time 
in the history of his people. The nation was hastening 
to its ruin. The kingdom of Israel filled up their cup, 
and were carried off in hopeless captivity — an exile from 
which they never returned. They mingled among their 
conquerors; their nationality was blotted out. 

Isaiah first comes to our notice during the life-time 
of XTzziah, King of Judah for fifty-two years, beginning 
810 B. C. We read in one place that he recorded the 
events of Uzziah's reign. 2 In the last year of the reign 
of this king, Isaiah, in a vision, had revealed to him his 
mission. 3 He therefore commenced his public work about 
758 B. C. For sixty years, or during the reign of 
Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, he was the great prophet 
of Judah. During the entire time of his public minis- 
trations the kingdom of Judah was steadily growing- 
weaker. During this period of decline it was Isaiah 
that stood forth to remind them of their duty; to warn 
them of the consequences of their acts ; to cheer them in 
their hours of discouragement, and to prophesy of the 
Messiah that was to come. Of his death we have a 
tradition that he suffered martyrdom by being sawn 
asunder. 

The book of Isaiah has been read and admired by 
people of all ages for its lofty sentiments, its sublime 

1 XX, 2. 2 2 Chronicles xxvii, 22. 3 Isaiah vi, 1. 



78 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



style, and beautiful poetry. It may be divided into sev- 
eral sections. We have first a collection of prophecies 
relating to Judah and the neighboring nations. This 
takes us to the thirty-sixth chapter. Three chapters 
then follow that are historical. The same account is 
also given in Kings. 1 Much of the language in these 
two accounts is the same; showing they were evidently 
taken from the same source. The account given in 
Chronicles of the same event is much briefer. 2 From 
the fortieth chapter to the end of the book are the 
prophecies of Isaiah relating to Christ and the nature 
of His kingdom. He foretold so distinctly the way 
Christ was to save men, and make and treat them as 
righteous, that he is called by some the Evangelical 
prophet. The Christ he predicted was to be the Christ 
of the Gentiles as well as the Christ of the Jews. 

JEREMIAH. 

Jeremiah is sometimes called "the weeping prophet." 
As he lived at a very trying time in the history of 
the people, it is not strange that he looked on the 
gloomy side of things. Isaiah probably did not long 
survive after Manasseh became king over Judah. His 
reign lasted fifty-five years, and, in the main, was a very 
wicked one, though he made an effort for reform. He 
was succeeded by Amon, who was king two years, and 
did evil in the sight of the Lord. In the reign of his 
successor, Josiah, the prophet Jeremiah appears on the 
scene. The doom impending over Judah was rapidly 
approaching. In order to understand his writings we 
must glance at the surroundings. 

x 2 Kings xviii, 13; xx, 20. 2 2 Chronicles xxxii. 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



79 



The kingdom of Israel, composed of the ten tribes, 
had disappeared before his day. The kingdom of Judah, 
now but a weak people, was threatened on the one side 
by the Babylonians, on the other by the Egyptians. The 
people appeared to forget the many and wonderful inter- 
ventions of God in their behalf in times past. They 
thought their only safety was to form an alliance with 
one or the other of these more powerful nations. Jer- 
emiah appears as the prophet of God to rebuke them for 
their sins, to warn them of impending ruin, and to 
denounce all alliances with Egypt. He was not a native 
of Jerusalem, but of Anathoth,, about three miles distant. 
Some of his prophecies belong to the reign of Josiah, yet 
he was not extensively known during the reign of that 
king. Huldah, the prophetess, living at Jerusalem, was 
the one to whom the king and people resorted for pre- 
dictions. 

Jeremiah was a prominent figure during the reign of 
the last three kings of Judah. He was, however, the 
prophet of unwelcome truths. He was disliked by the 
people, who accused him of a lack of patriotism, as he 
foretold national disaster. He was disliked by the so- 
called priests and prophets, because he rebuked their sins 
and denounced their prophecies. He was disliked by the 
princes, because he rebuked their oppressions and luxu- 
riance. He was not of the number of the first captives 
taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. He wrote from 
Jerusalem a letter to the captives in Babylon, 1 in which 
he cheered them with a promise of future deliverance. 
When the final overthrow of Jerusalem occurred he was 
kindly treated by the victors, and though taken a part of 
the way toward Babylon, he was released at Ramah and 



'Jeremiah xxix. 



80 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



returned to Jerusalem. Pie escaped the massacre in 
which Gedaliah was killed. His warning to the remnant 
of the Jews not to attempt to escape from the Chaldeans 
was unheeded. He was carried into Egypt with the fugi- 
tives, and resided in Tahpanhes, a city of Egypt. Tho 
remainder of his life is involved in doubt. 

The book itself appears to be rather poorly arranged, 
and we are not by any means sure it is now arranged as 
it was originally intended to be. This book is admired 
for its elegant style. The sentiments expressed are 
pathetic and tender. We have prophecies both domes- 
tic and foreign, special prediction of the destruction of 
Jerusalem; also prophecies of future blessings. A por- 
tion of it is historical. The last chapter is an appendix 
to the whole. The scribe, Baruch, acted as an amanuen- 
sis to Jeremiah. At the command of Jeremiah he put 
down in a roll the prophecies relating to the destruction 
of Judah and other nations. This roll Avas read to 
Jehoiakim, and by him destroyed, but Avas afterward 
reAA'ritten, with additions. 

LAMENTATIONS. 

This is probably the Avork of Jeremiah. It was writ- 
ten shortly after the fall of Jerusalem. It is a sad ele- 
giac poem, in Avhich he pours out his tears 0A r er the dark 
condition of things. Some think it more likely Avritten 
during one of his imprisonments. One lesson to be 
learned from this and other books is, that good men are 
often deeply afflicted, and sometimes in their troubles are 
A'ery sad. Readers of prophetical books will do well to 
remember that events are not recorded in the order of 
time, Avhich accounts for absence of connection betAveen 
the parts. 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



81 



EZEKIEL. 

This prophet lived during the captivity. He was one 
of the captives taken away with Jehoiachin eleven years 
before the final taking of Jerusalem. He was a priest, 
the son of Buzi. The fact that he was at that time 
taken to Babylon shows he was a man of importance. 
In the fifth year of his captivity, or six years before the 
fall of Jerusalem, he was called to be a prophet. The 
latest date mentioned in the book is the twenty-seventh 
year of the captivity. We know but little about him. 
He dwelt along the banks of the river Chebar. He was 
married, and the sudden death of his wife is mentioned. 
He was favored with visions, and evidently possessed 
a lively imagination. His vision of the four living 
creatures, and the four wheels, and the wheel within 
a wheel, has elicited much speculation, but not much 
agreement as to how the whole thing appeared, or what 
it signified. 

The book itself may be divided into two equal por- 
tions. The first includes the prophecies and visions 
previous to the fall of Jerusalem, the second portion 
those subsequent to that event. In the first division is 
the remarkable eighteenth chapter, bringing out clearly 
that each individual is responsible for his own acts only, 
and dies morally for them. The father does not bear the 
sins of the son, nor the son the sins of the father. The 
last eight chapters of the book have given rise to con- 
siderable discussion. Some have supposed them to be yet 
unfulfilled prophecies. Others have referred them to the 
church, some to Christ, and still others to the restora- 
tion of the Jews to Jerusalem after the conquest of Bab- 
ylon by Cyrus. 



82 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



DANIEL. 

The author of this book is generally supposed to be 
the prophet Daniel himself. He was certainly a remark- 
able character. The first six chapters of the book are 
largely historical, and they are written in a singularly 
interesting manner. We are given a short account of 
Daniel's rise to power. His courage, his wisdom, and 
his piety, arc conspicuous. He was living in the most 
luxuriant capital of the day, the favorite of the most 
powerful despot of the time, yet he dared always to do 
what seemed to him right. Ezekiel, the writer of the 
preceding book, living at the same time on the banks of 
the river Chebar, seems to have been profoundly im- 
pressed with the character of Daniel. 1 We need not 
doubt his influence over the Jews during their captivity 
was very great. He was but a child when he was first car- 
ried to Babylon. His rise to power was rapid. He fore- 
told to Nebuchadnezzar his doom. Under the immediate 
successors of that monarch he seems to have been little 
known ; but when the finger wrote the words of doom on 
the wall, they remembered Daniel, and sent for him to 
interpret them. He continued in favor under the reign 
of the Persian kings, Darius and Cyrus. His great age 
prevented his return to Jerusalem under the decree of 
Cyrus. Of his death we know but little. Tradition still 
points to a mound near the Euphrates as his tomb. 

From the sixth chapter to the end of the book the 
writings, both in spirit and in form, resemble the book 
of Revelation, of the New Testament. In vision he 
foresaw the overthrow of the Persian power by the Gre- 
cian, and the latter in turn succumb to a succeeding 

Ezekiel xiv. 14. 20. 



WKITEES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



83 



power. He also saw the Church of Christ — the king- 
dom of God, which was to be greater in extent than all 
the others. The book has been severely criticised, both 
for the miracles it records and for the prophecies it con- 
tains. The miracles are, indeed, wonderful, but from 
our present knowledge we are not justified in calling 
them impossible. In ancient history we read how the 
victorious hosts of Alexander overthrew the Persian 
Empire, and how at the death of Alexander his kingdom 
was divided among his generals. Finally, in the course 
of time, Jerusalem was ruled by Antiochus Epiphanes, 
king of Syria, who inflicted great cruelties on the Jews. 
Daniel so minutely predicted all these events, even to 
the length of time the persecution was to last, that some 
contend the account is history, and not prophecy. Yet 
if we are to allow him the gift of prophecy at all, we 
need not be astonished at the accuracy of the details. 1 

HOSEA. 

The concluding twelve books of the Old Testament 
are called the minor prophecies, and were by the Jews 
counted as one book. Hosea, though not first in point 
of time, is placed first in the collection. He lived at the 
same time that Isaiah did. His message related more 
particularly to the kingdom of Israel, though Judah is 
also mentioned. The burden of his writing is the great 
wickedness of the nation in forsaking God and going 
into idolatry. This sin is called adultery — a forsaking 
the covenant that bound the people to the service of 
their Maker — and is compared to the sin of a wife for- 
saking the marriage covenant. It is best to understand 

1 Compare the prophecies in Daniel with the historical account given in the 
apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees. 
6 



81 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



the prophet's account of his marriage in a figurative 
sense. His style is concise and abrupt. His whole 
book has been described as "a succession of sighs, a 
prophetic voice from the depths of human misery." It 
is full of rebuke for sins and warnings against apostasy, 
but it contains also predictions of future blessings when 
the Messiah was to come. 

JOEL. 

This prophet was a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. 
We know but very little about him. His writings were 
mainly addressed to the people of Judah. He is regarded 
as the earliest in time of the minor prophets. A deso- 
lating scourge of locusts furnishes an introduction to this 
book, the burden of which is to warn the people against 
sin, and its sure punishment. 

AMOS. 

This author was at first a herdsman, and a gatherer 
of sycamore fruit. His writings contain illustrations 
drawn from quiet scenes of rural life. He was a con- 
temporary of Joel, Hosea, and Isaiah. Although the 
nation itself seemed plunged in wickedness, there were 
not wanting prophets to warn them of the consequences 
of their actions. It is somewhat remarkable that while 
the prophets denounce judgment against other nations 
as well as against Israel, they do not make promises of 
future blessings to those nations, as they do to the 
Jews. 

We must notice most of the books close with great 
promises, which we may, perhaps, understand as refer- 
ing to the future extension and prosperity awaiting the 
Christian Church. 



WKXTEES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



85 



OBADIAH. 

This is the shortest book of the Old Testament. We 
know nothing about the author's life. As to the date 
when it was written, we notice it contains an allusion to 
the conquest of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. We may, 
therefore, suppose it was written after that event. Its 
subject is a prophecy concerning Edom, the ruin that was 
impending over it, which was accomplished a few years 
after taking Jerusalem, and more particularly many 
years later, under the Maccabean princes. If we com- 
pare the seventh and eighth verses of this book with 
Jeremiah xlix, 7-16, we will be struck with the general 
resemblance in the language used. As they wrote about 
the same time, in all probability one had the writings 
of the other before him. 

JONAH. 

The author of this book is more in doubt than any 
other book of the minor prophets. Jonah is mentioned 
as a recognized prophet in Second Kings. 1 This was in 
the days of Jeroboam II, king of Israel. He predicted 
the success of that king in his wars ; but we do not know 
when the book of Jonah was written. The subject-mat- 
ter of the book has occasioned much doubt as to its his- 
torical character. The prophet was commanded to go 
and warn the city of Nineveh of approaching destruction. 
We have to consider the wonderful nature of the miracle 
recorded before the prophet obeyed, and the equally 
wonderful result of his preaching. We do not suppose 
any one can explain the miracle. All we need believe 



•XIV, 25. 



8(3 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



about it is the simple fact stated; we need have no 
theory about it. 

MICAH. 

This prophet was contemporary with Isaiah. He 
was a native of Moresheth-gath, not far from the land of 
the Philistines. The burden of this prophecy was fear- 
ful judgments against Samaria and Jerusalem, including 
the countries of which they were the capitals, but finish- 
ing with promises of great blessing and glory to Zion, 
the real kingdom of the Messiah. We must, of course, 
understand that Micah was well acquainted with Isaiah 
and his writings. Occasionally he repeats the sayings of 
the latter. 1 We must call attention to one of his predic- 
tions relating to Christ. In the second verse of the fifth 
chapter he mentions the very town whence the Messiah 
was to come. Herod was referred to this prediction 
when he inquired where the Messiah was to be born. 

NAHUM. 

Nahum is described as being an Elkoshite. There 
were two places by this name. One is beyond the 
Tigris, the other is in Galilee. The latter is more 
probably the place meant. Some think that Capernaum — 
the village of Nauru — is his birthplace. He probably 
wrote during the reign of Hezekiah, soon after the inva- 
sion of Judah by Sennacherib, king of Assyria. The 
general subject is a prediction of sore calamity on Nine- 
veh. We can see how fitting the time was for such pre- 
dictions. Sennacherib had invaded Judah, and made a 
boast that no god could deliver it out of his hand. Ga- 
lium seems commissioned to announce this punishment 

1 Compare Micah iv, 1-3, with Isaiah ii, 2-4. 



WRITERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



87 



for the benefit of the people of Judah, who knew of the 
proud boast. This overthrow of Nineveh took place sev- 
enty-five or eighty years after the prediction, and was 
inflicted by the Medes under Cyaxares, and the Chal- 
deans under Nabopolassar, about 625 B. C. Nahum's 
style is one of lofty sublimity, and of a power of graphic 
painting not often surpassed. 

HABAKKUK. 

This book gives us the name of its author, but no 
account of his time or home. The Babylonian power 
was just beginning to threaten Judah, and was first felt 
606 B. C. The book was, without doubt, written a few 
years earlier than that date. Habakkuk was contem- 
porary with Jeremiah. The thoughts running through 
the book are, the sins of Grod's people; the Chaldean 
scourge therefor; expostulation with the Lord for permit- ^ 
ting so cruel a people to afflict Israel; the Lord's answer 
touching the Chaldeans, and the prophet's prayer that 
God would again make bare his arm for the deliverance 
of his chosen people. In style this writer is unrivaled 
in the best qualities of poetic imagination and sublime 
conception of Jehovah. 

ZEPHANIAH. 

This prophet wrote in the days of Josiah. After this 
good king, the nation was steadily waxing worse and 
hastening to its punishment. He lived about the time 
of Jeremiah. His pedigree is given for four generations 
back, and is traced to King Hezekiah. He paints, with 
a bold and free hand, the sins of the people and the fast 
coming judgment, and closes with promised blessings, 
and some mercies to the remnant of Israel. 



88 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



HAGGAI. 

This book was written subsequent to the restoration. 
In the book of Ezra, 1 we read of him as one of the 
prophets, We are ignorant of his tribe or parentage. 
It is probable that he was one of the exiles who returned 
with Zerubbabel. It seems the Jews who returned from 
the captivity, in consequence of the opposition they 
received, grew lukewarm in their efforts to rebuild the 
temple. Sixteen years went by, and still this duty was 
neglected. Haggai was then commissioned to remon- 
strate with them for this neglect. The idea is distinctly 
brought out that the poor crops and the misfortunes of 
the people were owing to their neglect to honor God by 
rebuilding His temple. It should be noted that none of 
the prophets who wrote after the restoration from 
Babylon, promise another restoration of the Jews to 
the land of their fathers. 

ZECHARIAH. 

He began to prophesy about two months after 
Haggai; he is spoken of in connection with the latter 
by Ezra, in the verses already mentioned. His aim 
was similar; to encourage the people in rebuilding the 
city and the temple. During most of this prophecy the 
people were more obedient than they had been before 
the captivity. Hence most of the messages to the 
people were more cheerful, containing much more of 
promise than of threatening. There are more j^reclic- 
tions of the Messiah in this prophecy, relative to its 
length, than in any other in the Bible, but none of a 
second restoration of the Jews to their ancient home. 

'Ezra v, ] ; vi, 14. 



WRITEES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



89 



The book is instructive and consolatory to weak but 
trusting children of God. The chapters from the begin- 
ning to the end of the eighth chapter, are somewhat 
different in style from the remainder of the book. On 
this account some have supposed there were two differ- 
ent writers to the book. There seems, however, to be 
no good ground for such conclusion. In the ninth chap- 
ter the conquests of Alexander the Great are sketched ; 
in verse nine, of the same chapter, is foretold the entry 
of Christ into Jerusalem. 

MALACHI. 

All we know about this prophet is his name, and 
perhaps not even that, for Malachi may not be a proper 
name at all — it means messenger. It is admitted by all 
that he Avas the last Old Testament prophet. He was a 
companion of JNTehemiah. The date of his writing is 
about the time of Nehemiah's second return to Jerusa- 
lem, perhaps 408 B. C, or even earlier. To understand 
the book, we must understand the necessities which 
called it forth. The Jews were very remiss in their 
religious duties. The marriage covenant was greatly 
dishonored, divorces were common, intermarriages with 
the heathen nations were frequent. The payment of 
tithes for religious purposes was neglected, and the Sab- 
bath was desecrated. Malachi writes to denounce these 
wrong acts. He sternly reproves even the priests, and 
clearly announces the law of God with respect to offer- 
ings and marriages. 

This book closes the list of Old Testament books. 
They were written by many men, during a period of 
more than a thousand years. We might glance back 
over the ground we have traversed. The first five books, 



90 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



written or arranged by Moses, comprise the law, and are 
also largely historical in character. The remaining his- 
torical books are Joshua, Judges, First and Second 
Samuel, First and Second Kings, First and Second 
Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. We must understand, 
however, these books were not given to teach science, 
nor history, nor politics ; but to reveal God, and His 
methods of dealing with individuals and nations, and 
show the need of salvation from sin. Ruth, Job, Psalms, 
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Solomon's Song, and Esther, seem 
each to have served some distinct purpose. Now it is to 
give us the genealogy of Christ, to show us the true 
lesson to draw from afflictions, to give us psalms and 
hymns of praise, a collection of maxims, or to show how 
foolishly even wise men may reason, or to illustrate 
God's care for His chosen people even in exile. 

The writings of the greater prophets follow next — 
Isaiah, Jeremiah and his Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Dan- 
iel. Of these, Isaiah was written before the destruction 
of Jerusalem; Jeremiah, about the time, or shortly after 
its fall; Ezekiel and Daniel, both written during the 
captivity in the land of the Chaldeans. Many things in 
these writings we do not understand to this day ; many 
of their prophecies have been fulfilled, no doubt some 
are yet waiting a fulfillment. The minor prophets, the 
last twelve books of the Old Testament, were written by 
men of whom we know but little, except through their 
writings. They cover a period of about four hundred 
years, commencing when Uzziah was king in Judah, 
and Jereboam II, the son of Joash, king of Israel, and 
extending to the time of Ivehemiah, after the restoration. 



BIRTH OF CHRIST. 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



93 



&5^hpe^s of the Hew ©estament. 

HE last book of the Old Testament was written 
about four hundred years before Christ. This 
long interval of time was full of stirring events 
greatly affecting the Jewish people. Their 
country was successively ruled by the Persian, Grecian, 
Egyptian, and Syrian powers. They enjoyed a short 
period of independence, and then passed under the 
dominion of Rome. During this time also appeared 
some of the various books known as the Apocryphal 
books, which we will examine in due time. We must 
say something about the change of language that had 
been going forward. Language is subject to change. All 
the books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew, 
the native tongue of the Jews, yet Ezra had to employ 
an interpreter to read the earlier written books. After 
the subjection of the Persian Kingdom, Greek became 
the language of commerce and politics. The Old Testa- 
ment was translated into Greek — not the classical Greek, 
but Hebraized Greek. At the time of Christ this change 
had gone on still farther; though Hebrew was still 
spoken, yet Greek was probably used for nearly all 
writings. Consequently the books of the New Testament 
were written in Greek, though, as before remarked, not 
the classical Greek. 

The time at length arrived when the predictions of 
the prophets of the Old Testament were to be fulfilled, 
and Christ, the Messiah, was born in Bethlehem of 




94 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Judea. The first four books of the New Testament are 
the memoirs of His life. It is a matter of joy that the 
persons who wrote the New Testament are so well known 
to us. Their history is familiar ; we know their names, 
the place of the birth of most of them, and how, when, 
and where they died. We see these men taken from the 
various walks of life ; we are acquainted with their pecu- 
liar traits, and know when, and often where, they wrote 
the Evangel of Christ ; the progress of the Church, and 
the letters of advice and instruction. While we may 
not look on their personal handwriting, and see the 
letters their hand formed by divine guidance, we may 
see copies of the books they wrote, written only a short 
time after they sealed their testimony with their blood; 
and we have most satisfactory proof that these copies 
are changed but little from those that came from the 
hands the Christian world holds so dear. The first of 
these writers was 

MATTHEW. 

He was a Jew hj birth; a native of Galilee. His 
Jewish name seems to have been Levi. He was a busi- 
ness man, and Avas a Roman tribute officer. He was not 
ashamed of his office, for he called himself "the Publi- 
can." It would be natural that his training should show 
itself in his style. So the orderly grouping of topics is 
pointed out. The sermons of Christ, the miracles, and 
the parables are skillfully grouped together. He wrote 
his first history for the Jews. He wrote it in the Hebrew 
spoken at that time in Palestine. Pie assumes that his 
readers are acquainted with the geography of Palestine, 
with Jewish feasts and customs. He traces the gene- 
alogy of Jesus, through Joseph, up to Abraham, and 
shows that He was a son of that patriarch through David. 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



95 



He sets forth many things respecting Jesus as fulfill- 
ments of Old Testament predictions. The tendency of so 
doing would be to conciliate the Jews and incline them 
to read about Him. Writing, as he was, for the Jews, it 
is not strange that he used their language. For a sim- 
ilar reason, when Paul wished to pacify a mob at Jeru- 
salem, he spoke to them in the Hebrew tongue. After- 
ward, when it became clear that the gospel was really to 
be preached to all nations, Matthew rewrote his gospel in 
Greek. His Hebrew gospel was written about A. D. 39, 
the Greek, of course, later in time. 

Matthew was a plain, matter-of-fact business man, 
rather than a studious one. He exhibits Christ as the 
author of the new dispensation, as Moses was of the old. 
His gospel was sometimes called the bodily gospel, be- 
cause it treats of Christ's earthly work rather than of 
His spiritual work. He pays little attention to the order 
of time in which the events he narrates occur. Though 
particular in giving the discourses of Christ and His 
parables, he gives but little insight into the meaning of 
the same. It is said by Eusebius that, after Christ's res- 
urrection, Matthew preached for fifteen years in Judea. 
According to tradition, he visited Ethiopia, Persia, and 
Parthia, and eventually suffered a martyr's death. 

MARK. 

The author of the second book is Mark. Some dis- 
cussion has arisen as to who he was. Some suppose him 
to be the son of a pious woman living in Jerusalem, 
named Mary, that his surname was John, and that he 
was a cousin or nephew to Barnabas. 1 If , this John 
Mark was the author of the book of Mark, we know 

1 Acts xii, 12; xv, 37; Colossians iv, 10. 



96 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



considerable about him. He went from Jerusalem to 
Antioch in company with Paul and his uncle, Barnabas, 
and accompanied them on their first trip as far as 
Perga, in Pamphylia, where, for some reason, he left 
them and returned to Jerusalem. 1 This act gave great 
offence to Paul, who would not have him with them on 
a second journey, choosing rather to separate from Bar- 
nabas than to have him along. 2 Subsequently he regained 
Paul's confidence, since he .was Paul's companion during 
his first imprisonment in Rome. 3 And Paul so highly 
valued his services at a later date, that he specially sent 
for him. 4 

Others are inclined to think the Mark who wrote the 
second gospel was a different man from this John Mark. 
They think he was a son of Peter. In one place Peter 
informs us he had a son whose name was Mark, and that 
this son was with him in Babylon. 5 Some would explain 
tli is remark of Peter's as signifying Mark was his 
disciple. We can see no good reason for such conclusion. 
This son being with him at Babylon, it would be natural 
for him to go with him to Rome. It is certain that 
Peter greatly influenced Mark, the author of the second 
gospel. At any rate, Irenseus calls the author of Mark 
"the disciple and interpreter of Peter." Origen makes 
the following observation: '•The second (gospel) is 
according to Mark, avIio composed it as Peter explained 
it to him, whom he also acknowledged as his son in his 
general epistles." 6 

It is considered quite possible that this gospel was 
written at Rome, and while its author was with Peter. 



'Acts xii, 25; xiii, 5, 13. a Acts xv, 36-39. s Colossians iv, 10. 

4 2 Timothy iv, 11. 5 1 Peter v, 15. See, also, Young's Concordance. 

6 Eusebius. 



It was probably designed more especially for the Latin 
Christians. This was the opinion of the Fathers, and 
internal evidence confirms it. It is noticed, for instance, 
that he employs many pure Latin words, using, however, 
Greek letters to spell them. When he speaks of the 
centurion, 1 he does not use the regular Greek word for 
that officer, but uses a Latin word, which would, of 
course, be readily understood by the Latin Christians at 
Rome. Other examples could be given. He also throws 
in words of explanation. Speaking of the widow's mite, 2 
he gives, also, the name of a small Latin coin, of which 
they were the equivalent. He is also careful to explain 
Jewish customs. Speaking of their custom in eating," he 
explains the matter more at length. These illustrations 
tend to show that this gospel was not written primarily 
for the Jews. 

As to the time of writing, we do not know for a 
certainty. Probably it was written about A. D. 63. 
Tradition has it that Mark was subsequently the first 
bishop of the Church at Alexandria. We are not 
informed as to his death. 

LUKE. 

Luke was a native of Antioch in Syria, a Greek by 
birth, a physician by profession. Paul often speaks of 
him as "the beloved physician." He was doubtless, for 
the times, an educated man. He often mentions the 
causes which produce the events he describes, and makes 
such comments as we would naturally expect from a 
scholar. Especially is this true when he names and 
describes various diseases. He uses the best Greek of 
any of the writers of the New Testament. We notice 

•XV T ,39. 2 XII, 42. 3 VII, 2, 3. 



98 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



lie commences his gospel with a short introduction. This 
is written in pure classical Greek; so, in fact, are all his 
writings, except when quoting from others, or when 
influenced by their style. His training shows itself also 
in this, that he fitted himself for his work by a personal 
investigation of the origin of Christianity. Though an 
inspired writer, he neglected no means of informing him- 
self on the subjects about which he was to write. He 
expressed himself thus: "It seemed good to me also, 
having traced the course of all things accurately from 
the first, to write unto thee." 1 

Luke wrote about the same time as Mark. As Mark 
seems to have written more particularly for the Latin 
Christians, so Luke seems to have written more espe- 
cially for the Greeks. He presents Christ as the Savior 
of the world, without reference to national or race dis- 
tinctions. Matthew, writing for the Jews, traces Christ's 
genealogy back to Abraham. Luke, writing for the Gen- 
tiles, traces it back to Adam. Writing for men outside 
of Palestine, he was careful to give geographical notices 
of the places he mentions. He remarks, for instance, 
that Nazareth and Capernaum are situated in Galilee; 2 
mentioning the country of the Gerasenes, he tells them 
its location, "over against Galilee." 3 Unlike the other 
evangelists, Luke gives a lengthy account of the events 
preceding the birth of John the Baptist and of Christ. 
He assumes his readers will be instructed by this 
account, which was, perhaps, well known among the 
Jews. It is noticeable that the language used in the two 
chapters, in describing these events, is not near as pure 
Greek as the rest; in fact, they are more strongly 
Hebraistic than any other part of the New Testament 

'Luke i, 4 (K. V.). 2 Lukei, 26; iv, 31. 3 VIII, 26 (E. V.). 



"WRITERS OP THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



99 



except Revelation. It is quite likely that Luke copied 
these parts just as he found them in the family records 
of Elisabeth and Mary. Luke was a companion of Paul 
for a long time. He was with him in some of his jour- 
neys, and also at Rome. 1 We know but little about his 
death. It is said that after Paul's death he preached 
the gospel in Italy, Dalmatia, Macedonia, Bithynia, and 
when quite old suffered martyrdom. 

JOHN. 

John, the author of the fourth gospel, was the son of 
Zebedee and Salome. He was born at Bethsaida, of 
Galilee. He was a younger brother of James, who was 
the first of the apostles to be put to death by Herod. 
His father, Zebedee, was evidently a man of wealth and 
social standing. He had boats on Lake Tiberias, and 
hired servants attending them. His mother, Salome, 
was one of the women who supplied the wants of Jesus 
from her substance. John himself was acquainted with 
the high priest, and it would seem that he owned a house 
at Jerusalem. The social standing of the family may be 
one reason why Salome made request of Jesus that dis- 
tinguished favors might be shown her sons. 2 She did 
not clearly understand the nature of Christ's kingdom. 
The religious character of Salome is often spoken of. 
Nothing is said of Zebedee's religious character. Then, 
as now, a mother's influence was all-important. 

We are able to glean a few more interesting particu- 
lars of the life of this apostle. He was one of three 
selected to behold Christ's glorious transfiguration, as 
well as the agony of his humiliation in the garden. He 
leaned on Christ's bosom at the supper; with Peter he 

^olosstans iv, 4; 2 Timothy iv, 2. 2 Matthew xx, 20-24. 



100 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



followed Jesus into the presence of the high priest, when 
all the others had fled. Alone, of all the twelve, he stood 
by the cross. He it Avas that Christ selected to care for 
His mother, and, in obedience to the words of His dying 
Lord, he took her immediately to his own home. He 
remained at Jerusalem for more than thirty years after 
this event, or until Paul's imprisonment in Rome. He 
then went to Ephesus, and had care of the Church there, 
but was soon banished by Nero to Patmos, a rocky isle 
in the Mediterranean. There he saw the wonderful vis- 
ions described in the Revelation, Avriting the book about 
A. D. 67 or 68. 1 

He established a school for the purpose of supplying 
Churches with competent pastors. On this account he 
was called the Theologian or Divine. The date of the 
gospel has been variously assigned. It seems most prob- 
able, however, that it was written at Ephesus, while he 
was engaged in his school, and was an old man, at as 
late a date, probably, as A. D. 95 or 96. He died a 
natural death. 

His gospel is mostly supplemental to the other three, 
and was designed to help his students into a knowledge 
of the very spirit of Christ. Its language is exceedingly 
simple and childlike, but its sentiments are deep and 
often hidden. It has been called 11 the spiritual gospel" 
and "the heart of Jesus." There are some words used 
in a very peculiar sense — such as " Word" meaning 
thereby the pre-existing Messiah, Light, Life, etc. It has 
always been a favorite book among spiritually-minded 
Christians, but a very obscure one to those who are 
Christians only outwardly. John had the grandest 

'Guerike's ' : Einleitung in das Neue Testament," pp. 59-65 and 522-530; also, 
Stuart's "Commentaries on the Apocalypse," vol. i, pp. 263-282. 



WEITEES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 101 

Oriental, poetic mind of any writer of the New Testa- 
ment. Compared with Paul, we at once note the differ- 
ence. Paul was a cultured Roman citizen, versed in 
Greek culture, possessed of a logical mind, an ardent 
temperament, and had great devotion for his work. 
John was poetic and contemplative. He turned his 
thoughts more or less on mental processes. He was 
reflective. The Apocalypse, or book of Revelation, shows 
not only his poetic power, but that he was very familiar 
with the imagery of the Old Testament prophets. 

That he had much to overcome in his natural traits 
of character before he became the sweet, mild, and affec- 
tionate apostle is plain. He says he was the apostle that 
Jesus did so much for. We translate the Greek word he 
uses by the word loved; but this does not fairly express 
the meaning. He did not mean love of affections or 
feelings, but love as a choice to do for, or to do good for; 
so his meaning is that Jesus had greatly modified him, 
helped him to become largely a new man — not simply in 
his moral character, but in all his natural ways of mani- 
festing his energy. Evidence of the naturally impulsive 
character of John is seen in several statements. Christ 
surnamed him and his brother James "Sons of Thun- 
der." 1 On more than one occasion Christ disapproved of 
their actions, and even rebuked them. 2 Truly Jesus did 
much in making John the man he was — loved him in a 
way that John alone mentions. 

The testimony of the early fathers is constant that 
the apostle John wrote this gospel. Some modern crit- 
ics are disposed to deny that John, the son of Zebedee, 
wrote it. They mainly base their objection on the dif- 
ference in style between this gospel and the book of 

1 Mark iii , 1 7. 2 Luke ix, 49-55. 

7 



102 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Revelation, which, they think, is so great that the same 
ma n could not have written both books. We must reflect 
that the Revelation was Avritten some twenty-five or 
thirty years before he wrote the gospel ; that, when he 
wrote the former, he had lived among a people speak- 
ing Greek but three or four years, hence his writings 
would not be in near as pure Greek as he would use to 
write his gospel after he had lived among a Greek- 
speaking people so long, and had taught it in his school. 
We would, therefore, expect to find great difference in 
style. 

We have now considered the four writers of Christ's 
memoirs. There are some points of contrast between 
these four writers which Professor Stowe beautifully 
brings out: "Matthew develops the character of Christ 
in the way best adapted to take hold of the devout Jews, 
looking for the hope of their fathers, as promised in the 
Old Testament. Mark writes for the grave, matter-of- 
fact Romans; Luke, for the versatile and learned Greek, 
whose eager curiosity could never sleep; and John, for 
the deeply reflecting, philosophical spirit which feels 
keenly the want of that which earth can not afford, and 
whose intense desires remain unsatisfied amid all the 
physical and intellectual luxuries that satiate the rest of 
mankind. Matthew exhibits the human and subordinate; 
John, the spiritual and divine of the Redeemer; Mark, 
His official character; and Luke, His personal history. 
In the four we have Jesus represented to us as the Mes- 
siah, the Teacher, the Pattern, and the God. . . . 
Whatever may be your peculiar temperament, or habit 
of mind, in the Bible you will find a Redeemer adapted 
to your wants, and a gospel suited to your condition." 1 

*" Stowe on the Bible," p. 197. 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



103 



THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

This book is the last historical book of the New Tes- 
tament. Its author is Luke. He seems to have designed 
it as a continuation of his gospel. We may regard the 
gospel of Luke as a history of the doings of Jesus before 
His death, the Acts as a history of the doings of Jesus 
after His death by means of some of His apostles. The 
title of the book is a little misleading, since it does not 
profess to give the doings of all the apostles, and not 
even the full history of any one of them. A cursory 
examination will show us that two apostles are chosen 
as the principal figures, around which are grouped some 
of the more striking events in the history of the early 
Church. The names of the books of the New Testament 
are the work of the editors or publishers of the manu- 
script. The earliest name given to this book was sim- 
ply "Acts of Apostles." Probably but a short time 
intervened between the writing of these two books by 
Luke. We notice they are both addressed to the same 
person. 1 It seems quite natural to conclude that Luke's 
design was, though addressing his writings to one indi- 
vidual, to write for the early Church generally a short 
history of its growth, which history he divided into two 
sections, as already set forth. 

From what we have already had to say of Luke, we 
know he was well fitted for the task. We are told first 
of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pen- 
tecost, at Jerusalem; the organization and extension of 
the Church at Jerusalem, and among the Jews ; and then 
of the planting and extension of the Church among the 
Gentiles. The first chapters are mainly a history of 

l Luke i, 4; Acts i, 1. 



104 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Peter's labors. He is mentioned but once after his 
escape from prison by the angel's aid; and this one 
mention is the part he took in the proceedings of the 
first council at Jerusalem. 1 After chapter xiii, the acts 
of Paul are almost the only ones mentioned. Luke was 
a companion of Paul for a considerable length of time. 
He joined him just as he was about to go into Mace- 
donia. Previous to the sixteenth chapter he speaks of 
Paul in the third person, he or they; but after this he 
almost always says we or us, showing that he was along. 
He probably remained with Paul until his imprisonment 
at Rome. 

With the exception of these two principal apostles, 
but three others are mentioned as doing any thing. 
These others are James and John, the sons of Zebedee, 
and James, the brother of Jude. James, the son of Zeb- 
edee, is only mentioned as being put to death by Herod. 2 
John is mentioned several times, always in connection 
with Peter, and as performing a secondary part. James, 
the other apostle, is mentioned twice. The first time, his 
speech in the council at Jerusalem is recorded. 3 This 
James, we might remark, was, in all probability, the son 
of Joseph and Mary. Paul speaks of him as the brother 
of our Lord. 4 He was a brother of Jude, and both are 
mentioned as brethren of Christ. 5 The name of his 
mother is distinctly given as Mary. 6 He is, indeed, here 
called James the Less, but it is evidently the same apos- 
tle, since but two of the name of James are mentioned in 
any of the lists of the apostles. 7 And the mother of the 
other James was Salome. In the lists of the apostles 



Chapter xv. 'Acts xii, 2. 3 XV, 13-26. 'Galations i, 19. 

s Matthew xiii, 55; Mark vi, 3. 6 Mark xv, 40. 

7 Matthew x, 2-5 ; Mark iii, 16-19 ; Luke vi, 13-17 ; Acts i, 13. 



WKITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 105 

just mentioned, his father's name is given as Alphseus. 
In view of the facts mentioned above, it seems very 
likely that Alphseus was but another of Joseph's names. 

The next writer is Paul, who wrote a number of 
epistles which we will shortly consider. We must first 
give a little sketch of Paul's life. He was born in Tar- 
sus, in Cilicia. His parents were Jews, but his father, 
by some means, had been made a Roman citizen. So 
Paul was a free-born Roman citizen. His Hebrew name 
was Saul. Paul was a Roman name. He received an 
education in Greek, and could speak it well. He was 
sent to Jerusalem to be educated in theology. He was 
very zealous in his religious convictions. He was of an 
ardent temperament, possessed of a logical mind, and 
loyally carried out his convictions of duty. He did not 
shrink from any task that he thought it his duty to do. 
He verily thought he ought to do many things contrary 
to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, so he went about it 
with characteristic energy. We first hear of him in the 
seventh chapter of Acts, when the persecutions against 
the Christians at Jerusalem broke out with so much bit- 
terness. He guarded the clothes of those that stoned 
Stephen. And as proof of how active he was in this 
work of persecution, we read he made "havoc of the 
Church." The result was that the members of the first 
Church were scattered around, some in one city and 
some in another. Paul, or Saul, as he was called at that 
time, armed with letters of authority from the high 
priest, journeyed to Damascus, to inflict what punishment 
he could on the Christians he might find there. 

We need not doubt that Paul in all this was sincere, 
doing what he verily thought was right. He was simply 
greatly mistaken in his duty. No sooner was he con- 



106 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



vinced of this error than he was equally ready with all 
his energy to serve the cause of Christ. His acceptance 
of Jesus, on his way to Damascus, as his Lord, is usually 
called his conversion. It was a conversion in an impor- 
tant sense, but he was a pious worshiper of God before. 
From this time on, Paul's energies and his education 
were used to advance the Church he had heretofore 
persecuted. It is not strange the disciples were at first 
suspicious of him. They quickly learned his worth, and 
for thirty years he was the most prominent figure in the 
early Church history. His important work commenced 
eight years later, A. D. 43, when he went to Antioch to 
assist Barnabas in his work; where, we are told, for a 
"whole year" they taught the people. 

Paul was too great a man to be confined to a limited 
field of work. He was set aside for missionary work, 
taking the form of great missionary journeys. He 
started on the first one in company with Barnabas, 
about A. D. 45. John Mark (to whom we referred in 
the book of Mark) accompanied them part way. The 
scene of their first labors was in the southern portion of 
the peninsula of Asia Minor, and the island of Cyprus. 
The time consumed in this trip was about one year. 
Seven years now went by, during which Paul seems to 
have confined his labors to Antioch. In his second 
journey he took with him Silas. They passed through 
the northern portion of Asia Minor, and arrived at the 
city of Troas, on the coast. Here Paul seems to have 
been joined by Luke, his almost constant companion 
afterward. He now proceded to Macedonia, in Europe, 
remaining some time in Philippi, and finally extending 
his journey to Athens, where he delivered his famous 
address from Mar's Hill, and to Corinth. At this place 



WRITEES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 107 

an incident is mentioned showing the simplicity of his 
life. His trade was that of tent-making, and we are told 
he worked at that during the week and preached on the 
Sabbath. From Corinth, Paul returned by way of 
Ephesus to Jerusalem, and thence to Antioch. The time 
occupied in this second journey was about two years. 

His third trip was through the southern part of 
Asia Minor. He stopped three years at Ephesus. Near 
the end of this time occurred the famous mob we read 
about in the nineteenth chapter of Acts. From here he 
traveled into Macedonia, stopping again at Corinth. He 
then slowly returned to Jerusalem, where, at the feast of 
Pentecost, A. D. 60, he was arrested, charged with being 
a seditious person. We must remember he was a Roman 
citizen, and therefore entitled to more rights than the 
majority of the Jews. He was sent to Csesarea, the 
residence of the Roman governor, for trial. This trial 
was postponed for two years, during which Paul was a 
prisoner, but not kept in close confinement. At the end 
of that time Paul refused to go to Jerusalem for trial, 
but availed himself of his rights as a Roman citizen, and 
appealed to Caesar. This necessitated his removal to 
Rome. The account of his voyage thither in a sailing 
vessel, is written in a very interesting manner. Arrived 
at Rome, Paul was permitted to dwell two whole years 
in his own hired house, nominally a prisoner, but per- 
mitted to preach among the brethren. 

Thus far we have been following the account as laid 
down in Acts, which was probably written about this 
time. Scholars who have diligently studied Paul's writ- 
ings, tell us that near the close of his two years' residence 
the severity of his confinement was increased, and that 
Paul taught, dictated, and wrote in chains. They think 



108 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



his first trial before Nero resulted in his acquittal, and 
that from Rome he again traveled through Macedonia 
and Asia Minor, making Ephesus again his head-quarters. 
That he even went west as far as Spain. He was subse- 
quently arrested again, this time treated as a male- 
factor, and sentenced to death by decapitation. 

The necessity calling for these apostolic letters can be 
easily understood. The rapid spread of 'the early Church 
throughout Syria, Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean 
countries of Europe, naturally brought into the Church 
a great many people who did not understand fully the 
doctrines. These letters were written to some of the 
Churches to aid them to a clearer understanding in such 
matters, to warn them against errors, as well as to 
encourage them in seasons of discouragement. Paul 
wrote thirteen or fourteen of these letters. Whether 
he wrote the epistle to the Hebrews or not, is somewhat 
in dispute. Much of what they contain was dictated by 
Paul, and written by an amanuensis. He was probably 
troubled about his eye-sight. In the epistle to the Gala- 
tians, which he probably wrote with his own hand, he 
says, "See with how large letters I have written unto 
you with mine own hand." 1 He seems to have signed 
all his epistles with his own hand, so that all might 
know they were genuine. 2 The epistles were not written 
in the order in which they occur in the Bible, but we 
will consider them in that order. 

EOMANS. 

This epistle was written "to all that be in Rome, 
beloved of God, called to be saints." 3 It was written 
from Corinth, because Paul was lodging with Gaius, who 

'Galatians vi, 11 (E. V.). 2 1 Corinthians xvi, 21. 3 1, 7. 



WRITEES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



109 



was a resident of Corinth. 1 Paul was in Greece during 
his third trip. As this was written just before he left 
there for Jerusalem, 2 we may place its composition with 
considerable certainty, A. D. 58. It was sent to the 
brethren at Rome by Phebe. 3 The Church at Rome 
was probably organized before any apostle was there. 
Both Paul and Peter visited there, but neither of them 
seem to have had any official relations with the Church. 
Peter was there a short time only, less than a year. 4 
The Church probably included converts from both Juda- 
ism and paganism. Paul was, and had been, anxious to 
visit Rome, but had been prevented from doing so. JNTo 
apostle had been to visit them, and he accordingly 
thought it best to write them a letter, to let them know 
their brethren thought of them, to explain some points, 
and to put both classes of converts on their guard 
against temptations to which they were most exposed. 

He labors to make plain to them that the gospel is 
for both Jew and Gentile, and is particular to explain in 
reference to justification by faith, and in what faith con- 
sists. He then urges on them some particular points, 
such as holiness in living, and how they should treat 
the weaker brethren. Paul shows his peculiarities of 
style in this epistle. He writes more as a Jewish Rabbi 
than as a classical Greek. He abounds in imperfect 
parenthetical clauses. He is not easily understood. He 
uses imperfect antithesis, yet the thoughtful reader can 
usually supply what is wanting. Often, so impetuous is 
his mind that he does not finish one thought before he 
darts off on another. " He evinces much rhetorical power ; 
. . . he soars occasionally into the highest flights of 
eloquent demonstration, and invests his great subject 

1 XVI, 23. 2 XV, 25. 3 XVI, 1. 'Alford. 



110 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



with such a glow of divine radiance that the reader 
takes no note of the roughness of the language." 

FIEST AND SECOND CORINTHIANS. 

Paul first visited Corinth, that rich and luxurious, but 
wicked city of Greece, during his second missionary jour- 
ney, A. D. 53 or 54. He remained there for a year and 
a-half, making his home with Priscilla and Aquila, who, 
with other Jews, had been banished from Rome. 1 It is 
worth noting that when Paul wrote his epistle to the 
Romans four or five years later, amongst others to whom 
he sent salutations was Priscilla and Aquila, so they 
had in the meantime returned to Rome. 2 It was while 
stopping with them that Paul supported himself by tent- 
making. Daring his sojourn in Corinth, he, doubtless, 
organized a Church there. On his third trip we know 
he stopped a long while at Ephesus. In those days com- 
munication must have been slow. They had no regu- 
larly organized post, as we have to-day. We may be 
sure Paul was anxious to hear from Corinth. He seems 
to have written at least one letter which has not been 
preserved. 3 Apollos, an eloquent man, preached in 
Corinth part of the time Paul was absent. Paul heard 
that there were dissensions and divisions among the 
Church at Corinth. 4 It would also seem they had applied 
to Paul for advice on various points, and, finally, there 
were immoral practices that needed correction. 

To meet this state of things Paul wrote this first 
epistle from Ephesus. It is interesting to notice in one 
part of this epistle Paul gives simply his advice, not as 
an inspired writer, but as a man. 5 He gives some direc- 

1 Acts xviii, 2. 2 Romans xvi, 3. 3 1 Corinthians v, 9. 

4 1 Corinthians l, 11. 5 Chapter vii. 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



Ill 



tions to Christian women in reference to praying unveiled 
and in promiscuous assemblies. We must understand 
that amongst the people of that day, as among many 
Oriental nations of to-day, it was not considered the proper 
thing for a woman to go unveiled. The lesson we are to 
learn from it is, not to do what will shock public senti- 
ment. Paul states the rule that governed himself in 
such matters. He would conform to the customs and 
usages to which he innocently could, for the sake of win- 
ning some to Christ, even when the customs did not 
commend themselves to his judgment. He tells us that, 
"though I was free from all men, yet I brought myself 
under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. And 
to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews." 
He explains to them the Christian doctrine of the res- 
urrection of the dead, and gives a beautiful description 
of love, the greatest of all Christian exercises, the one 
that rightly includes them all, and the one in the absence 
of which "all faith," even that which might remove 
mountains, is worthless. 

Some time after writing the first epistle, Paul left 
Ephesu.s and went to Troas, where he was in hopes to 
hear the results of his letter. He was disappointed in 
this respect, and so went out into Macedonia, in some 
city of this country, though we are not able to decide 
which one. He met Titus, who brought him news from 
Corinth. It is evident Paul had some anxiety as to the 
effect of the first letter. He probably thought he had 
been a little severe in his rebuke ; but when he heard the 
result, he exclaims that he no longer regretted writing- 
it, for the effect was to make them sorry of their actions, 
which sorrow caused them to correct some of the evils. 
Though the effect was thus good, it seems to have 



112 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



stirred up some of Paul's enemies, and so Paul defends 
his former course in this second epistle. In addition he 
gives them important advice and instruction, and informs 
them of his intention to visit them soon. Judging from 
the first verse of the thirteenth chapter the apostle had, 
evidently, paid them a visit, which Luke had omitted 
recording in Acts. It must have been a short one, or we 
would have had some mention of it. 

GALATIANS. 

This epistle was written to the inhabitants of Galatia, 
or Galio-Grsecia, which was a province north of the cen- 
ter of Asia Minor. It was settled by a band of Gauls, 
who belonged to the great Celtic branch of the Aryan 
family, who overrun Europe in pre-historic times. This 
colony came into Asia Minor about the third century 
before Christ. Their origin is doubtful. The Gauls or 
Celts, wherever found, are noted as being brave, warm- 
hearted, and generous, but impulsive and fickle. This 
was as true of the ancient inhabitants of Galatia as it 
is, in some respect at least, true of the descendants of 
the Celts to-day in France. Paul first preached to the 
Galatians on his second trip, and we judge the people 
received him gladly. 1 He evidently organized a number 
of Churches, for, during his next trip, he speaks of 
strengthening all the Churches in Galatia. But in his 
absence trouble broke out. Teachers arose, who sought 
to convert the Galatians to Judaism. They taught the 
necessity of circumcision. True to their impulsive 
nature, the people were quite free to accept these views. 

St. Paul writes this epistle to correct these errors. 
He first maintains his apostleship, showing how he was 

'Galatians iv. 14. 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 113 

set aside for special work among the Gentiles. Then he 
argues against any necessity for circumcision at all, and 
explains to them the doctrine of justification by faith. 
In his conclusion he calls their attention to the fact that 
he had written with his own hand, which was not his 
usual custom. 

EPHESIANS. 

Ephesus was in early times a celebrated city on the 
western coast of Asia Minor. It was renowned as being 
the location of the famous temple of Diana, one of the 
seven wonders of the ancient world. It had a large 
Greek population, and its location attracted to it a large 
number of Hebrews. The worship of Diana drew to it 
pilgrims from all over Asia Minor. It was famous for 
its learning. Sorcerers and magicians flocked thither, 
and "Ephesian letters" formed a celebrated magical 
charm even as late as the sixth century. Paul made a 
short stop at Ephesus near the close of his second trip, 
but on his third trip he stayed there nearly three years. 
According to the account in Acts, 1 his labors during that 
time were attended with great success. Near the close 
of his stay occured the famous uprising concerning the 
new teachings, on which occasion the whole city ran 
wild, but no great damage seems to have been done. 
The Church which Paul thus established was a very 
important one. The apostle John, a few years later, 
took charge of it. We need not doubt it occupied a 
large share of the thoughts of Paul. 

The time of writing this epistle can be ascertained 
with considerable accuracy. Paul at the time of writing- 
was a prisoner, but his confinement was certainly mild, 

1 Chapter six. 



114 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



for lie was permitted to write and teach. We conclude, 
therefore, it was written from Rome, probably early in 
his imprisonment. This epistle is, in some respects, 
much like that to the Romans. It was written, appar- 
ently, more for the purpose of imparting instructions 
than to condemn errors. It brings out clearly the idea 
that men are saved by grace through faith; that all are 
by nature (meaning, by this expression, by practice, or 
by experience) children of wrath; and that it is by 
Christ that Ave have our redemption through His blood. 
He gives us an idea of what this redemption is, "the 
forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his 
grace." It is for all Christians a very precious epistle. 

PII [LirPIANS. 

Philippi was a city of Macedonia, situated near the 
shore of the iEgian Sea. It was a city of considerable 
prominence in ancient times, but is now only a mass of 
ruins. It was, perhaps, the first place where the gospel 
was preached in Europe ; at least, the first place in 
Europe where Paul labored. The gospel may have been 
preached at Rome before this. At the Pentecostal feast 
at Jerusalem, there were present Jews whose home was 
in Rome. On their return they may have preached the 
gospel there. Paul was evidently strongly attached to 
the Church at Philippi. Though they were very poor, 
yet they had liberally supplied his wants when other 
Churches had been negligent. And in writing this 
epistle, Paul takes occasion to thank them for supplies 
recently sent him. The time of writing can be pretty 
well settled. Paul was a prisoner at Rome, but he must 
have been there some time to allow information of his 
necessities to reach the Church at Philippi, and for their 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



115 



donation to reach him in return. We know that Paul 
was allowed to dwell for two years in his own hired 
house, but at the time of writing this letter he seems to 
have been confined in the palace. 1 In several places he 
shows that he thought a crisis of his fate was at hand. 
We may therefore conclude that it was near the end of 
his first imprisonment, about A. D. 63. In this epistle 
Paul writes very tenderly to them, but he also warns 
them of Judaizing teachers. 

COLOSSIANS. 

This epistle is addressed to the Church at Colosse. 
This was an important city of Phrygia, which was a 
province in the south-western part of Asia Minor. It 
is referred to in ancient history place of some 

renown. A Church was founded here at an early time. 
Paul himself had never been there. Epaphras is men- 
tioned as their minister. He seems to have been with 
Paul in Rome, and acquainted him with the state of 
affairs at Colosse. Paul, we must remember, was the 
great apostle to the Gentiles. He devoted his life to 
work among them. Though never at Colosse, he was, 
of course, warmly interested in them, and, accordingly, 
writes them this letter. He takes occasion in it to warn 
them against vain philosophies. The natural result of 
the contact of Christianity with Oriental and Greek 
philosophy was a tendency to frame theories bringing in 
harmony the newer Christian views and those of the 
pagan world. This afterward flourished under the name 
of Gnosticism. It is now believed that even at the time 
of this epistle Paul thought it necessary to warn the 
Colossians of this tendency. We notice that this epis- 

1 Pliilippians i, 13. 



116 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



tie, after being read by the Church at Colosse, was to 
be sent to the neighboring city of Laodicea. They are 
also directed to read the epistle from Laodicea, but this 
epistle has not been preserved. 1 We must observe that 
it is not at all strange that one or more of these apos- 
tolic letters should have been lost; we must rather won- 
der that so many have been preserved for us. It was 
written from Rome in the earlier and freer part of Paul's 
imprisonment, about A. D. 61 or 62. 

FIRST AND SECOND THESSALONIANS. 

These are regarded as the earliest epistles written by 
Paul. Thessalonica, now Salonica, in Turkey, was, in 
the first century, a commercial city of large size and 
wealth. Paul visited this city soon after his first entry 
into Europe, before he visited Athens and Corinth. The 
apostle was forced to leave Thessalonica sooner than he 
wished to, and, unable to return himself, he sent Tim- 
othy to them to give them needful instructions. Tim- 
othy rejoined Paul at Corinth. His report induced the 
writing of the first epistle, A. D. 52 or 53. One of the 
points about which believers at Thessalonica were at 
variance with each other was in regard to the state of 
those who died before the coming of Christ, which event 
they probably thought was near at hand. They assumed 
that those living at that time would have an advantage 
over those who had died. Paul, after expressing his 
feelings over the report from them, and exhorting them 
to holiness, instructs them on this point. He assures 
them that it is just as well to be dead as alive then. 
He says: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose 
again, even so them also that are fallen asleep through 

'Colcssians iv, 16. 



WRITEKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 117 

Jesus will God bring with Him." He further admon- 
ishes them that, though the day and the hour are 
not known, they should always be prepared for such 
an event. 

It is the opinion of scholars that the second epistle 
was witten soon after the first, and from the same place. 
It is, in a measure, supplementary to the former Some 
of the Church were still unconvinced on the point just 
mentioned, so further instruction is imparted. There 
was also, even at that early day, the belief that Christ's 
coming was near at hand. On this point he uses the 
language of prophecy. 1 This is one of the unfulfilled 
prophecies of the Bible. We can not be sure we under- 
stand the language used by Paul. As if anxious to 
impress on them that this epistle was authoritative on 
the point presented, he calls their attention to the fact 
of his own signature to it, so they might know he 
vouched for it. 2 

EPISTLES TO TIMOTHY. 

The epistles of Paul that we have thus far been con- 
sidering were written to Churches for the benefit of the 
members at large. We have now to consider some of 
his letters addressed to individuals. Timothy was a 
native of Lystra, in Lycaonia. His mother was a Jew- 
ess, "and believed;" his father was a Greek. When 
Paul came to Lystra, on his second trip, he heard very 
favorable reports of Timothy, so much so that he con- 
cluded to take him along with him. We have recorded 
an instance of .Paul's willingness to conform to custom, 
even when he was convinced that it was not required. 
There were many Jews at Lystra, and rather than offend 

l 2 Thessalonians ii, 1-12. 2 2 Thesaalonians iii, 17. 
8 



118 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



thorn lie had Timothy circumcised, though he was con- 
vinced that this was not necessary. When Paul found 
himself unable to return to Thessalonica he sent Timo- 
thy to see to the Church there. We have recorded that, 
on his third trip, Paul labored long, and with great suc- 
cess, at Ephesus. When called to other fields of labor, 
Timothy was the one left to minister to the Church 
there. Timothy was a young man, and Paul was anx- 
ious to have him so manage his important charge that 
he would bring no reproach upon himself; therefore 
these letters of advice, called pastoral letters, were writ- 
ten him. They are largely occupied with instructions to 
Timothy in regard to his own oehavior, and in refer- 
ence to pastors and deacons, as to their families and the 
Church. 

There has been considerable discussion as to the time 
they were written. We have a record of but one im- 
prisonment of Paul at Rome. But tradition is to the 
effect that he underwent a second imprisonment there. 
The second epistle was evidently written while he was 
a prisoner in Rome. Now we may say that Timothy 
was left at Ephesus when Paul departed in 59, and that 
the first epistle was written to him shortly afterwards, 
perhaps from Macedonia, and that the second epistle wa 
written from Rome, near the close of his imprisonment, 
about 63 A. D. Careful scholars, however, think that 
they were written at a later time; that it was after 
Paul's first imprisonment that Timothy was placed over 
the Ephesian Church, and that the second epistle was 
written during Paul's second imprisonment, when he 
felt the end was approaching. 

These epistles display a tender solicitude for Timothy. 
They abound in good advice and exhortation. Even his 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 119 

health was a matter of concern with Paul, who advised 
him to take a little wine for his often infirmities. We also 
notice how much Paul's apostolic authority was recognized. 
He speaks of assigning ministers to their field of work. 
Timothy himself is directed to come to him at Rome, 
and to bring with him Mark. He is to use diligence in 
this matter, so as to come before winter. We are also 
given an insight into the simplicity and poverty of 
Paul's life. Timothy is directed to bring with him a 
cloak left at Troas, some books, and "especially the 
parchments." Paul did not have the means of supply- 
ing himself with whatever he wanted. 

TITUS. 

Titus was one of the early converts and fellow-labor- 
ers with Paul. He was a Greek. Paul took him with him 
from Antioch to the council at Jerusalem, A. D. 46, where 
the question of compelling the Gentile converts to be cir- 
cumcised, or not, was settled. 1 He was afterwards with 
Paul in Macedonia, and brought him news of the effect 
of his first epistle to the Corinthians. 2 Paul left him at 
Crete to take charge of the Church there. This is also 
a pastoral epistle, giving Titus instructions as to ordain- 
ing elders, and his own behavior, concluding with some 
directions about meeting him at Nicopolis. The date of 
this epistle is about the same as the first epistle to 
Timothy. When the second epistle to Timothy was 
written, we observe that Titus had been sent to Dalmatia. 3 

PHILEMON. 

This is one of the shortest epistles in the Bible. It 
was directed to Philemon, but to the Church as well. 

1 Acts xv ; Galatians ii, 1. 2 2 Corinthians ii, 13. *2 Timothy iv, 10. 



120 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Philemon, according to tradition, was a wealthy citizen 
of Colosse. This epistle was written from Rome at the 
same time as the epistle to the Church at Colosse, and 
was probably carried thither by the same messenger. 
Besides the communication to the Church, Paul wished 
to make a plea to Philemon in regard to a certain Ones- 
imus. It has generally been supposed that Onesimus 
was a slave of Philemon, who had escaped from his 
master and found his way to Rome, and had there been 
converted by Paul, and was now ready to return to his 
master; and so Paul wrote a short letter to Philemon, 
entreating him to receive Onesimus kindly. There are, 
however, good reasons for concluding Onesimus was a 
younger brother of Philemon. The law of primogeni- 
ture was in force in the Greek cities of Asia Minor. The 
first-born son inherited the wealth and titles of his father. 
The younger brothers were members of the family, but 
servants of the first-born. If we assume that such was 
the relation between these two, Paul's language becomes 
very plain. 1 We must admire the skill with which Paul 
words this letter. We must also observe that at the 
time this was written Timothy was with Paul in Rome. 

HEBREWS. 

The authorship of this book is somewhat in doubt. 
It is popularly ascribed to Paul, and we can at least 
•say, that if he be not the author we know not to whom 
to give the credit. The early Fathers quote from it, 
and refer to it, but do not express an opinion as to its 
authorship. About 180 A. D., it was asserted by the 
Alexandrian Jews that Paul was the author, but a little 
later in time they were only willing to admit that the 

1 Philemon 16. 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



121 



substance of the epistle was Paul's. The Eastern Church; 
generally ascribed the authorship to Paul, and this wast 
the prevailing view after the fourth century. The weight 
of authority among our modern scholars is in favor of 
Paul as the author, though they are not all agreed. If 
Paul were the author, it was probably written about the 
close of his first imprisonment. If from the pen of some 
other inspired writer, it may have been a little later. 

It is a very important epistle. It was written more 
expressly for the Jewish Christians, but not addressed to 
any particular Church or community. The object of the 
Writer is to guard them against the dangers to which 
they were peculiarly exposed. They were liable to 
relinquish their faith by fear of persecution, or by the 
efforts of Judaizing teachers, who would seek to bring 
them back to the religion of their fathers. They would 
point them to their national history, and the law 
delivered to them by their great law-giver, Moses, and 
expounded by the prophets and leaders of olden times. 
So the writer addresses himself to show the superiority 
of Christianity to Judaism. God in former times, indeed, 
spoke to them by prophets, but in later times by His- 
Son. He quotes from the Old Testament to show the 
deity of Christ. He insists on His superiority over 
angels, over Moses, Aaron, and the whole Jewish priest- 
hood. He explains the typical nature of the sacrifices of 
the Old Testament, and takes occasion to define faith, a: 
definition which is of very great value to the whole 
Christian world. He then exhorts them to continue 
faithful to the end, and sets before them the examples 
of worthy men of Old Testament times. 

As we have stated, it is by no means settled whether 
Paul was the author of this epistle or not. The author 



122 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



was one intimately acquainted with Old Testament liter- 
ature and Jewish customs, and we know of no one better 
qualified to write it than Paul. Counting this one of 
Paul's epistles, we have fourteen from his pen. About 
twenty years of Paul's life was active missionary work. 
As the Churches multiplied in Asia Minor and Mace- 
donia, we can see how his correspondence with them 
would increase. We have no reason to suppose these are 
all of the epistles he wrote. We have noticed references 
to at least two others; one to the Corinthians, and one the 
Laodiceans, of which we have no other record. We may 
well suppose these are the most important ones; at any 
rate, the majority of them seem to have been written 
near the close of his life. When he was imprisoned, and 
could no longer travel and visit them, his energies found 
vent in writing these messages of exhortation, encourage- 
ment, and warning. 

JAMES. 

This is called The General Epistle of James. We 
notice it is not addressed to any particular Church or 
community, but to the Jews who were scattered abroad. 
The author of this epistle is James, but it is not so clear 
which James. It is not probable that it was written by 
James the son of Zebedee, because he Avas put to death 
at a very early period, and a close examination shows 
that this epistle was written at a later date than his 
death. The other James, the apostle, was the son of 
Alpheus. We have already given our reason for thinking 
that he is the same as James the Lord's brother, son of 
Joseph and Mary. The place of writing was Jerusalem, 
the time of writing is not so clear. One writer thinks 
it the oldest book in the New Testament; some place it 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



123 



before the council at Jerusalem, A. D. 45; others would 
place it later, about A. D. 61 or 62; and, finally, some 
consider that it was written later than any of Paul's 
writings, or about A. D. 66. 

This epistle is eminently practical. Its place in the 
canon is never called in question except when it is 
supposed to conflict with Paul's statement about faith, 
and then for theological reasons. James is in no sense 
in conflict with Paul. He uses the word works, where 
Paul uses love. Paul speaks of works of laiv, by which 
he means outward works of the Mosaic law, such as 
circumcision, animal sacrifices, and the like. Works, in 
the sense of intentional obedience, is probably a better 
word than love to express the idea. James wished to 
guard against the abuse of salvation by faith, which has 
been so fatal. It would seem that John, in his gospel, 
written some thirty years later than James, also feared 
the abuse of this doctrine, for he did not once use the 
word faith in his gospel. 

EPISTLES OF PETER. 

We have two general epistles of Peter, and can piece 
together quite a sketch of his life. He was born in 
Bethsaida, of Galilee, 1 but when he was called to be one 
of the twelve he had married, and was living in Caper- 
naum. 2 He seems to have had at least one son. 3 By 
occupation he was a fisherman. W T e may conclude he 
was a God-fearing Jew before he was a follower of Christ. 
He and his brother Andrew were intimate with James 
and John, sons of Zebedee. Andrew and John were 
disciples of John the Baptist, and it is quite probable 
they were daily expecting the coming of the Messiah. 

2 John i, 44. 2 Mark i, 29. 3 1 Peter v, 13. 



124 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



His name is always mentioned first in the list of the 
disciples. He was one of three permitted to see the 
transfiguration of Jesus, and to be with him in his hour 
of agony in Gethsemane. He is more often mentioned 
than any other disciple, and it is quite reasonable to con- 
clude he enjoyed a certain pre-eminence among them. 
There is, however, no reason to think this pre-eminence 
was anything more than personal ; he had no more 
authority than any of the others, nor is he in any way 
more worthy of honor. 

We judge he was ardent and impulsive, but had 
much to overcome. On more than one occasion he was 
rebuked by Christ. His character is well shown on the 
night of the betrayal. He impulsively grasps a sword 
and cuts off an ear of the high priest's servant ; he fol- 
lows Christ from afar, but his courage fails, and in rapid 
succession he denies Him thrice ; Christ's meaning look 
and the cock's crow recalls to him his idle boast of the 
previous evening, and going out, he weeps bitterly. 
After the crucifixion and ascension of Christ, Peter seems 
to have taken the lead. He is the principal figure in 
the first thirteen chapters of Acts. He is credited with 
performing several miracles. The lame man at the tem- 
ple's gate walked at his command. At his rebuke Ana- 
nias and Sapphira were struck dead, and, in answer to 
his prayer, Dorcas was restored to a life of usefulness. 
In a vision he was taught by God that the gospel was 
for the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and thenceforth his 
counsel was that none of the burdens of the Jewish law 
be laid on them. He always remained the apostle for 
the Jews, in the sense that Paul was the apostle for the 
Gentiles. 

His first epistle is dated from Babylon. There is no 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 125 

reason for supposing this was any other place than the 
city of that name, though some have tried to make out 
that it is only another name for Rome. It was written 
to the Jews dispersed in various parts of Asia Minor. 
The probable date of writing is about A. D. 62 or 63. 
His object in writing was to strengthen the Churches in 
the faith and give them useful admonitions. The second 
epistle is in a measure supplementary to the first ; but 
little is known of the time or place of writing. It was 
probably written not long before his death, perhaps from 
Rome. Tradition has it that he suffered martyrdom in 
Rome, about the same time that Paul did. How he 
went to Rome we do not know. It may have been as a 
prisoner, it may have been of his own accord. St. Paul, 
in none of his later epistles, written shortly before his 
death, mentions the presence of Peter, which he almost 
certainly would have done if Peter had been free to visit 
him, or if he had been imprisoned with him. It was 
from Rome, under the supervision of Peter, that the gos- 
pel of Mark was written. 

EPISTLES OF JOHN. 

We have three epistles that bear the name of that 
apostle. We have given an outline of his life in connec- 
tion with the gospel of John. It is not necessary to add 
more to it in this place. There is no good reason to 
doubt but that these epistles were written by the apostle 
John, but we have very little to guide us as to their 
date. The first one is not addressed to any individual, 
Church, or community. It was written after the gospel, 
'and some have supposed it to be an appendix to the gos- 
pel. The latter is, however, complete in itself. Written 
after the gospel, it is the work of an aged man, old 



126 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



enough to call the Christians generally " little children." 
This epistle contains some very important, and, for the 
Christian world, very precious texts. Parts of two 
verses are now acknowledged by all scholars to be addi- 
tions made by some later hand. No Greek manuscripts 
earlier than the fifteenth century contain them. These 
are the seventh and eighth verses of the fifth chapter. 

The other two epistles are addressed to individuals. 
As to the date or place of writing, we are in doubt ; 
neither do we know anything of the parties to whom 
they are addressed. The first one is to some distin- 
guished lady and her children. We have no further 
knowledge of this Christian family, nor do Ave know 
where they lived. The third epistle is a very short one, 
and is addressed to a Christian by the name of Gaius. 
Neither of the last two epistles contain any very re- 
markable statements. They were probably written 
from Ephesus, where the apostle resided at a very 
advanced age. 

JUDE. 

The apostle who writes this epistle styles himself 
brother cf James. Elsewhere James is called the brother 
of Jude. His name is also given as a brother of Christ. 
He was probably a son of Joseph and Mary. Our Lord 
had selected two of the sons of His mother to be apostles. 
Little is known of this apostle. There are traditions of 
his labors in various provinces. This epistle was written 
at a late date. It shows clearly that great wrongs and 
wickedness were done by men in the Church. The wis- 
dom of the apostles, even, did not keep out all unfit per- 
sons. The state of things that Peter appears to predict 
seems to have become history at the time Jude wrote his 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 127 

epistle. Jude appears to make quotations from two 
apocryphal books. On this account the genuineness of 
the epistle has been attacked by some; most critics have 
maintained it. Eusebius has preserved an interesting 
story concerning some of Jude's descendants. It is to 
the effect that the grandchildren of Jude were living in 
the time of the emperor Domitian, and were by him 
brought to Rome and closely questioned as to their 
means, occupation, and the nature of Christ's kingdom. 
When satisfied on these points he ordered their release. 
These relatives, we are told, continued to live even to 
the time of Trajan, and "ruled the Churches both as 
witnesses and relatives of the Lord." 

REVELATION. 

This book is variously called the Revelation and the 
Apocalypse, the last word meaning an unveiling. It is 
placed last in the New Testament, but was probably 
written much earlier than some of the other books. At 
an early date in Church history it was not doubted that 
this book was the work of John, the apostle. The oppo- 
sition to it arose chiefly from those who thought it taught 
the speedy coming of Christ and the millennium. The 
Fathers would probably never have called it in question 
if some had not referred to it as upholding their views 
on this point. The testimony in favor of John being the 
author is as strong for this book and goes as far toward 
settling this point as it does toward any of the books of 
the New Testament. It is by no means settled what it 
teaches in regard to the coming of Christ and the mil- 
lennium. The nature of the book makes it more difficult 
to understand than any other New Testament book. The 



128 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



holders of all sorts of theories have thought they found 
in this book satisfactory grounds for their belief. 

There is considerable discussion as to when this book 
was written. The early writers, apparently, differ among 
themselves as to who was emperor of Rome at that 
time. One mentions Claudius, the majority name Nero, 
and still others speak of Domitian. If the first be right, 
it must have been written before A. D. 54. If the 
second, previous to A. D. 68. The third would place it 
between A. D. 81 and A. D. 96. It is obviously out of 
place to enter into a full discussion of this question, but 
there is a way of harmonizing them. Nero belonged to 
the Domitian family. His full name was Nero Claudius 
Domitius. It is asserted by a very careful scholar 1 that 
the word used by Irenseus, which has been relied on to 
show the later date, really refers, not to the emperor 
Domitian, but to Domitius, the last of Nero's names. 
So, too, the statement that John's banishment was under 
Claudius is certainly a mistake; the writer might, how- 
ever, have referred to Nero, as this is also seen to be one 
of his names. The language in which the book is 
written is also evidence that it was written about the 
time of Nero. When John wrote the gospel, he used 
quite good Greek. The Revelation abounds in Hebra- 
ism, such as we would expect of a man who had lived but 
a short time among a people using Greek. John went 
from Jerusalem to succeed Timothy at Ephesus about 
A. D. 65. If the Revelation were written under Nero, 
or before 68, he could scarcely have perfected himself 
in Greek, and his writings would naturally abound in 
Hebraisms. 

The Revelation is a book that has received a vast 

1 Guericke. 



WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



129 



amount of study, and numerous have been the interpre- 
tations of its language. At the time John saw the 
heavenly visions, the Church was suffering great perse- 
cutions. John himself was banished to the lonely isle 
of Patmos. The scope is plainly stated. We are told 
it relates to things which must "shortly come to pass." 
All are agreed that it was to confirm the Churches in 
their faith, and to cheer them in their hour of distress. 
It most admirably serves this end. " The Church in 
times of distress has always used it, as it was designed 
to be used, for comfort and encouragement." John was 
first directed to write short messages to the " Seven 
Churches which are in Asia." Asia here means but a 
small part of Asia Minor. These messages are contained 
in the second and third chapters. There were, of course, 
more than this number of Churches in Asia Minor. We 
may conclude they were the most important Churches, 
or the Churches most needing admonition ; or, finally, 
since the book abounds in symbolical language, he chose 
the number seven, which is also symbolical. 

John was then shown "the things which must be here- 
after." This is the part of the book which has occasioned 
such diversity of opinions. All are agreed that the final 
triumph of Christianity is taught. A great many attempts 
have been made by eminent scholars to explain the lan- 
guage used. It seems to us best not to attempt any 
explanation here. We can not do better than to quote 
Professor Stowe's words in this connection: "I would 
here say to my readers, take the book of Revelation, 
and read it once through without reference to anything 
which you have ever heard said about it, and without 
attempting to apply its predictions to any of the events 
of history with which you are familiar. Read it simply 



130 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



for the sake of enjoying it; read it as a glowing descrip- 
tion of a series of magnilicent pictures, which were 
passing before the eye of the writer; read it tor the sake 
of throwing your soul into its sublime acts of adoration 
of the Great Supreme; read it for the sake of becoming 
imbued with its spirit, and without troubling yourselves 
as to the historical application of its symbols ; and 
remember, while you read, that it is an Oriental, an 
Asiatic, and a Hebrew book." 



— — — <-r?t^>£ 

©HE pPOGI^YPHA. 

N some of our editions of Bibles is a class of 
hooks called the apocryphal books. It may 
not be well known that there are a great many 
more books of this character. No account of 
the Bible would be complete which omitted a description 
of these books. We have seen that Paul mentions two 
of his epistles which have not been preserved for us. It 
may be that some other letters, from other of the apos- 
tles, have been lost as well. In the books of the Old 
Testament, also, there are reference to still other books 
of which we now have no record. We have no right to 
assume that all of the inspired books have been pre- 
served, any more than we have the right to assume that 
all of the inspired utterances of all the prophets and 
seers have been recorded. All we need feel sure about 
is, that enough books have been preserved to fully answer 
the purpose for which they were designed. 

On the other hand, though we have reason to sup- 





BUILDING THE TOWER OF BABEL. 



THE APOCRYPHA. 



133 



pose, or the right to think, that some inspired hooks have 
been lost. A number of books are in existence, some of 
which claim to be inspired, which were rejected by the 
Jews of olden times, and are still rejected by the major- 
ity of the Christian world ; and a number of others have 
been written since the times of the apostles, which have 
never been acknowledged to be inspired by the majority 
of those best able to decide this point. In most cases 
the reasons for such rejection are very apparent on exam- 
ining the books. 

There seems to be no very good reasons why any of 
these uninspired books should be longer printed in the 
Bible. They are, of course, interesting books in their 
way, and some of them are historically valuable, but 
they seem out of place in the Bible. If the collection in 
the Bible included all the apocryphal books, we could see 
more reason for printing them ; but, as is well known, 
there are other apocryphal books, especially some on New 
Testament topics, just as worthy of being printed as 
those which are selected. The Roman Catholic Church 
acknowledges some of these books to be inspired. If we 
printed only those they admitted, so as to be able to 
examine their Bible, it might be well, but we print 
others than those they receive. The Septuagint con- 
tained more of the apocryphal books than our Bible, so 
Ave can not say we print them because they were included 
in that translation. 

In what we have just said we would not unduly 
deprecate them. Some of them are a valuable contribu- 
tion to Jewish history at an interesting period of time. 
Others convey noble thoughts, and contain admirable 
maxims. In general, the most careless reader will not 
fail to notice the difference in tone between the books 



134 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



we regard as inspired and those we consider apocryphal. 
In some of the earlier translations of the Bible the 
apocryphal books that are usually printed were placed in 
one class, called the Hagiography, which means holy, or 
sacred, writings. They have also been called the Beutero- 
canonical books, which is to imply that, class, they 
are of a lower grade than the canonical or inspired 
books. The word apocrypha, by which they now are gen- 
erally known, means, primarily, secret, or hidden; but in 
course of time it came to mean spurious, or forged; so we 
see it is quite appropriately used to designate these books. 

We may as well consider one question, which must be 
answered sooner or later: that is, what is the distinction, 
or dividing line, between the canonical or inspired books 
of the Bible and this mass of literature, known, in gen- 
eral terms, as the Apocrypha? A full discussion of this 
question would necessitate an entire volume of itself. It 
may be as well to simply state the rule which has been 
followed by the Protestant Churches. For the Old Tes- 
tament we accept as inspired only those books which the 
Jews themselves accepted. They regarded Malachi as 
the last of the prophets. After his time their efforts 
were devoted to simply preserving the books they then 
had. They were all ancient. They were written in 
Hebrew, and in a kind of Hebrew that was already pass- 
ing into disuse. Many of them were known to be the 
works of prophets ; the rest were supposed to have been 
written by prophets. At any rate, they had been accepted 
as authoritative by the prophets of later times. 

Their national history, and the contents of these now 
revered books, had firmly impressed on their minds the 
importance of preserving their sacred books, and of 
observing their precepts. The greatest care was to be 



THE APOCEYPHA. 



135 



exercised in transcribing any of the books. The educa- 
cation of the boys, such as it was, had but one object in 
view ; that was to instill in their minds the precepts of 
the law. ~No other learning could be of any value. One 
of their strict rabbis taught: "It is said, 'Thou shalt 
meditate on the law, day and night.' Show me an hour 
that belongs to neither day nor night, and that you may 
employ in other learning." With this spirit you can see 
how sternly the more orthodox party at Jerusalem would 
discountenance any attempt to add to the number of 
their sacred books, the production of writers of their own 
day; and the Jews themselves never made any addition 
to their canon. There were, no doubt, many excellent 
books on ethical subjects produced, but the Jews never 
regarded them as inspired in the sense they did the writ- 
ings of the prophets of olden times. 

In reference to the New Testament, the rule has been 
to accept as inspired only those books which were writ- 
ten either by apostles or by persons instructed by them, 
as, for instance, Luke. We do not mean to say that 
there ever was a formal rule to this effect promulgated, 
but the Churches generally made this distinction. In 
reference to these books, the Protestant and Catholic 
Church are agreed. 

Having thus given the principles on which the Prot- 
estant portion of the Christian world acts in determining 
the inspired books of the Bible, we must now turn our 
attention more particularly to the Apocrypha itself. 
Human nature everywhere and in all ages is much the 
same. There were false prophets in olden times as well 
as true ones, and we have no reason to doubt these false 
prophets wrote false books. So, from the very earliest 
times the devout Jews had to reject or show the falsity 

9 



136 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



of such books. We shall have occasion to give soon 
quite a long list of books mentioned in various places in 
the Old Testament. Some of them may have been re- 
garded as inspired ; many of them were certainly consid- 
ered authoritative, but others were, probably, in the true 
sense of the word, apocryphal books. Such books disap* 
peared in the general wreck of Jewish literature, during 
the long and troublesome times of the Jewish captivity. 
It may have been, then, that only the more valuable of 
their sacred books were gathered together and zealously 
taught. 

The Persian kings, as a rule, were disposed to treat 
their Jewish subjects as fairly as any of the conquered 
provinces of their great empire. Alexander the Great, 
B. C. 334, invaded Asia at the head of a comparatively 
small army, but before him the empire of Persia melted 
away. He treated the Jews very kindly, and induced a 
number of them to go with him to Egypt, where he 
founded Alexandria. Greek now became the language 
of politics in Western Asia. Greek customs, manners, 
philosophy, and habits of thought now began to pene- 
trate into Judea, and, in short, Hellenic culture influ- 
enced for ages the condition of Western Asia and Europe. 
After the death of Alexander and the founding of the 
Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt, owing to a revolt, numbers 
of the Jews were carried thither as captives, but were 
kindly treated. Now, we are not concerned in giving an 
historical outline. We simply wished to show how all 
this must have influenced the culture of the JeAvs, and 
especially those aa t 1io made their home in Alexandria. 
The HebreAv in which the Old Testament had been writ- 
ten Avas noAV a sealed tongue to the majority of the Jews 
themselves. It Avas at Alexandria that it Avas translated 



THE APOCRYPHA. 



137 



into Greek — not the classical Greek, for that language 
had also become modified by the many tongues with 
which it had come in contact. It was from Alexandria, 
finally, that a large number of apocryphal books made 
their appearance. The explanation is not difficult to 
give. The Jews of Alexandria, brought so intimately in 
contact with the Greek culture of its founders, lost that 
feeling of regard for the Old Testament books which 
still held sway in Jerusalem. Hence it is that apocry- 
phal books would obtain somewhat of a credence in Alex- 
andria, and hence it is that from time to time some of 
them would be appended to the Septuagint. 

We do not know how many of these apocr} r phal books 
were written before the Christian era, — doubtless a num- 
ber more than we have any record of at present. The 
most important of these were finally added to the Sep- 
tuagint translation. This list includes all that we print 
in our Bible, and three more. It is here necessary to 
remark that some of them were written after the Chris- 
tian era. The most of them were originally written in 
Greek. The place of origin of most of them was Alex- 
andria, or, at least, Egypt. The objects of the writers 
were various. Some are historical; some are written to 
honor Daniel; one is a continuation or amplification of 
the book of Esther; several are ascribed to Solomon. 
These constitute what is known as the Old Testament 
Apocrypha, but we see no very good reason for separat- 
ing them from the general mass of apocryphal literature. 
After Christianity had begun to prevail in Palestine and 
Asia Minor, a great many apocryphal books appeared, 
written on New Testament topics. Narratives of Christ's 
life are numerous. We have, also, several Acts of Apos- 
tles and Revelations. There are a number of apocryphal 



138 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



epistles, but in this case the name is hardly appropriate, 
because in most cases they only claim to be letters from 
the early ministers and good men of the Church. 

We have spoken of the difference between the Bible 
of the Protestants and the Catholics. The latter Church 
receives all the apocryphal books we usually print, with 
the exception of the two books of Esdras and the Prayer 
of Manasseh, as inspired canonical books. It is a simple 
matter of history that none of the apocryphal books were 
received by the Jews as canonical, that Christ and the 
apostles never recognized their authority, and that the 
early Church, and most learned of the Church Fathers, 
rejected them all. Nevertheless, the Council of Trent, 
that convened in 154-5, accepted the books just designated 
as inspired. The position of the Protestant Church in 
regard to these books is this: They rest down on the 
fact that they were not in the Jewish canon, and were 
never recognized by the writers of the New Testament 
as inspired. They also say that though some may be 
regarded as good history, and others as containing many 
excellent maxims, yet, class, a close examination 

shows that they are unworthy of a place in the canon. 

It is necessary to go back a little ways to show the 
position of the Catholic Church. Jerome, who translated 
the Scriptures into Latin in the fourth century, gave to 
the Western Church a version as celebrated as the 
Septuagint was for the Eastern Church. He was a very 
devout and learned man, making use, in his translation, 
of not only the various Greek versions, but of a previous 
Latin one, as well as an Arabic and Syriac translation, 
comparing all, however, with the original Hebrew and 
Greek. He thus produced what is known as the Vulgate 
translation, which has ever remained the authoritative 



THE APOCEYPHA. 



139 



Bible of the Catholic Church. Jerome, following the 
Septuagint, saw fit to include a number of apocryphal 
books, but he notes, with scrupulous care, every such 
addition; and did not, himself, as is shown by quota- 
tions from his own writings, receive them as inspired 
books. 

Eleven hundred years after his translation, the 
Catholic Church had to deal with the Reformation. The 
Council of Trent, that convened in December, 1545, 
though frequently interrupted, even for years at a time, 
and adjourned in December, 1563, had for its object to 
define, as far as seemed to them necessary, the doctrines 
of the Catholic Church. One of the first decisions 
reached was that the traditions of the Church were as 
binding as the revelations of Scriptures, and that the 
Vulgate of Jerome was the authentic Bible. It had been 
received by the Church for more than one thousand 
years; its text was not to be questioned, even by an 
appeal to the Hebrew and Greek from which it had been 
translated. As now some of the apocryphal books of the 
Old Testament were a part of this Bible, they were 
received with it as of equal authority with the others. 
They are willing to admit that the Jews did not recog- 
nize them as canonical, and, also, that Christ and the 
apostles did not "urge them against the Jews;" but 
they claim that their Church, in council assembled, is far 
more competent to decide whether a book is inspired or 
not than were the Jews; and explain that the writers of 
the New Testament did not "urge them against the 
Jews," because they wished to convince them from such 
writings as they themselves received. 

As we have now spent some time in becoming 
acquainted with the general nature of apocryphal books, 



140 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



we will now call more especial attention to those that 
are usually printed. 

THE BOOKS OF ESDRAS. 

There are two apocryphal books of this name, but 
there is no very good reason for supposing they are the 
works of the same author. The Catholic Church agrees 
with the Protestant Church in denying the inspiration 
of these books. The original language in which they 
were written is Greek, Esdras being the Greek form of 
Ezra. The first book is mainly a retranslation of a por- 
tion of the Old Testament, commencing with the last two 
chapters of Chronicles, the body of it taken from Ezra 
and ending with a portion of Nehemiah. The third and 
fourth chapters are original. It is thought by some that 
the book in its present form is but a fragment. We may 
well suppose that the author was a Greek-speaking Jew, 
who compiled, fur the benefit of the Alexandrian Jews, 
who did not well understand the Hebrew in which the 
original accounts were written, this book, as a history of 
the events clustering around the return of the Jews from 
the Babylonian captivity. By comparing this book with 
Ezra, we notice he allowed himself a good deal of liberty 
in his translations. The original chapters just mentioned, 
as well as the variations that occur, show that he had 
some manuscripts to consult that have since disappeared. 
The date of writing can not be very definitely fixed. 
Josephus was acquainted with this book ; so it was prob- 
ably in existence as early as the first century before 
Christ, 

The second book of Esdras is a very different work. 
The first two and the last two chapters are very probably 
additions made at some later date, as a number of ancient 



THE APOCRYPHA. 



141 



versions omit them. The main body of the book — that 
is, from the second to the fifteenth chapter — is an example 
of what is called Jewish apocalyptic literature, resem- 
bling the book of Revelation in the New Testament. 
We are almost ready to believe that the author of this 
book was acquainted with Revelation, and that he imi- 
tated it in style. This, however, would imply that he 
wrote late in the first century, and all are not agreed on 
this point, as some would place its date in the last cent- 
ury before Christ. It was written in Egypt, and Greek 
was the language used. The design seems to have been 
to comfort and cheer the Jews by the idea that the time 
of the Messiah was near, and the end of the world at 
hand. The author represents the Messiah as rising out 
of the sea and sitting on Mount Zion, which is greatly 
exalted, and destroying His enemies by fire issuing from 
His month ; but the Jews, including the ten tribes, are to 
be reunited and graciously dealt with. 

TOBIT. 

This book has been called the first written novel. It 
is purely a work of fiction. When we reflect that it is 
undoubtedly a very ancient work, we can not help feel- 
ing an interest in it, and the story is told with no little 
skill. It is especially interesting to an antiquarian. We 
perceive the influence of the old tribal relation in deter- 
mining marriage, and in the record of the superstitious 
rites performed by Tobit. We see the people were not 
free from a belief in evil spirits and the efficacy of 
charms. The probable moral of the story is that a good 
man — one diligent in prayer and good works — is sure 
of divine favor and of deliverance out of difficulties. The 
Catholic Church accepts this as an inspired book. 



142 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



JUDITH. 

There is a great deal of interest in this book also. 
It is a pleasantly told story. The scene is laid first in 
Assyria and next in Bethulia, a city of Judea. We read 
of the causes which led to the war with Assyria, the 
investment of the city, and the straits to which the 
inhabitants were reduced. The heroine of the story is 
then described — a wealthy widow, renowned for her piety, 
her beauty, and shown possessed of rare courage. She 
plans the assassination of the Assyrian general. The 
manner in which she carries out her scheme is told with 
much skill; her success is all that could be desired, as 
the Assyrians are driven with great slaughter from the 
land. Scholars assure us that there are a number of 
mistakes, geographical, chronological, and otherwise, in 
this book. The moral is quite clear : God's protection 
would be over his people if they would keep the law. 
The Catholic Church accepts this book, also, as inspired. 

ESTHER. 

The apocryphal book of Esther is but a continuation 
of the canonical book of Esther ; the numbering of the 
chapters, we notice, continues right along. The apocry- 
phal book commences with a portion of the tenth chap- 
ter. Mordecai is called Mardoeheus, and Hainan is 
styled Aman. These changes are necessitated by the 
different language in which the addition is written, being 
in Greek. In Esther we read of some service that 
Mordecai had rendered unto the king. 1 The first three 
chapters of the addition explain more particularly the 
nature of that service. In Esther, also, we are told that 

1 Esther vi, 1-3. 



THE APOCEYPHA. 



143 



the king wrote a letter unto all his governors in refer- 
ence to the destruction of the Jews. 1 A copy of that 
letter purports to be given in the first seven verses of 
the thirteenth chapter, or the fourth chapter of the addi- 
tion. The prayers of Mordecai and Esther then follow, 
which are not given in the original book ; also an account 
of her appearing before the king. The last chapter pur- 
ports to be a copy of the decree of the king, recalling 
his previous edict. The writing of this letter is also 
mentioned in Esther. 2 These additions 'are found only 
in Greek; not existing in Hebrew. It is evident they 
were written by some other and later person than the 
writer of the book of Esther. They are accepted by the 
Catholic Church. 

WISDOM OF SOLOMON. 

This is a late production, designed to imitate the 
proverbs of Solomon, and refers to historical facts in the 
life of that king. Some of the statements may be a por- 
tion of Solomon's "Three Thousand Proverbs." Much 
of the instruction is good, and exerts a salutary influence 
over those who read it, and has always been highly 
regarded. It is even asserted that the New Testament 
writers occasionally quote from it, 3 but this, if clearly 
proved, amounts to nothing. It also contains many 
fanciful conceits, and some, even, that are absurd and 
silly. There is little doubt that the original language is 
Greek, and that it was written at Alexandria. It con- 
tains nothing essential in order to understand the history 
of Solomon, or the relation of the old dispensation to the 
new. "The style is unequal: sometimes turgid, some- 
times simple, and occasionally even sublime." 

Esther iii, 12. 1 Esther viii, 9. 3 Comp. Wis. i, 18, with Matt, xxvii, 43. 



144 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ECCLESIASTICUS. 

This book is also named " Wisdom of Jesus, the Son 
of Sirach." It is prefaced by two prologues, which we 
have no reason to doubt are in the main true. From 
them we gather that the author was learned in the 
Jewish Scripture, and "having gotten therein good judg- 
ment, was drawn on to write something himself pertain- 
ing to learning and wisdom." lie wrote his treatise in 
Hebrew, but left it in an unfinished state. His grand- 
son, of the same name, found the manuscript, arranged 
it in an orderly manner, and translated it into Greek. 
It is a very excellent book in its way, but was never 
received by the Jews into their canon. The Catholic 
Church refers both this book and the preceding one to 
Solomon, and places them right after the books usually 
considered his in the Bible. 

BARUCH. 

This book purports to have been written by Baruch, 
the scribe and assistant of Jeremiah. 1 The time is said 
to be during the captivity of Judah, and Babylon is 
mentioned as the place of writing. Statements made in 
the text itself show that it is a forgery, and that these 
claims are put forth by the author to give his book a 
reputation that it does not have on its own merits. At 
present it exists in Greek only, though it is claimed that 
at least a portion of it was originally written in Hebrew. 
Chapter six is no part of the book, and there is no good 
reason why it should be printed with it. It is stated to 
be one of Jeremiah's epistles, written to them which 
were to be taken captives ; in other words, to the people 

1 Jeremiah xxxvi. 



THE APOCRYPHA. 



145 



of Jerusalem. In the book of Jeremiah we have a copy 
of a letter he wrote to the captives in Babylon, but no 
mention is made of this epistle. This, also, is one of 
the books accepted by the Catholic Church. 

ADDITIONS TO DANIEL. 

There are three of these apocryphal additions to the 
book of Daniel. The first is " The Song of the Three 
Holy Children." In the third chapter of Daniel we 
read of three persons cast into the fiery furnace, and of 
their miraculous escape therefrom. In some versions of 
Daniel there is inserted between the twenty-third and 
twenty-fourth verses of this chapter this song. It is 
evidently a late production. The next addition, " The 
History of Susanna," is, in some versions, placed at the 
beginning of the book of Daniel, in others it is appended 
to it as chapter thirteen. It is designed to exalt Daniel, 
when a young man, by showing how, by his wisdom, he 
saved a worthy woman from death, and put to confusion 
two false accusers* 

The third addition is "Bel and the Dragon." Bel 
is a corruption of Baal. In some manuscripts this fol- 
lows immediately after the Song of the Three Children ; 
in others it forms chapter fourteen. It is designed to 
magnify the wisdom of Daniel. He very cleverly reveals 
the deceit practiced upon the king by the priests of Bel. 
At present these additions are only known in Greek, 
and, owing to a peculiar use of words, we are quite sure 
they were first written in Greek. Jerome, when he 
translated them into Latin for the Vulgate, expressly 
stated that he had not found them in Hebrew. The 
Catholic Church accepts all of these additions, and 
prints them as part of the book of Daniel. 



146 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



THE PRAYER OF MAXASSES. 

Iii Chronicles we read that this king was taken by 
the Assyrians to Babylon as a captive, and it is farther 
stated that he prayed to God, and this prayer was re- 
corded. This short book purports to be the prayer. It 
embodies pious thoughts, and contains language appro- 
priate to such an occasion; yet there is little doubt it is 
a forgery. The original language of the book is Greek, 
and must be far later in time than the date of Ma- 
nasses' reign. It is therefore rejected as an inspired 
writing, not only by the Protestants, but by the Catholics 
as well. 

THE BOOKS OF MACCABEES. 

It is necessary to make a short explanation. The 
apocryphal books known by this name are, in reality, five 
in number. The connection between these books is only 
nominal. They were composed "at different times, by 
different authors, in different languages, on different sub- 
jects," and are of unequal literary merit. But they are 
all of a historical character, treating of a most interest- 
ing period of Jewish history; that is, from the death of 
Alexander the Great to the time of Herod. They treat 
largely of the Maccabean family, whose founders nobly 
fought and fell in the sacred cause of their country 
and their God. Furthermore, the Jews adopted the 
expression Maccabees to designate any one who suffered 
persecution for religion. 

After the death of Alexander the Great, Judea be- 
longed now to Egypt, and then to Syria. It Avas for a 
time nominally independent, but at length passed under 
the dominion of Rome. The first book, as it stands in 



THE APOCEYPHA. 



147 



our Bible, is considered the best book of the list, as far 
as literary and historical merit is concerned. It is a 
clear and succinct account of the events which befell the 
Jews during a space of forty years. It narrates the per- 
secution to which the Jews were subjected under Anti- 
ochus Epiphanes, as had been foretold by Daniel ; the 
heroic resistance of Mattathias and his five sons ; and the 
triumph of the Jews under the leadership of the second 
of these sons, Judas, surnamed Maccabeus. The author 
is entirely unknown. There is every probability that it 
was first written in Hebrew. Jerome expressly states 
that he saw it in that language. At present the earliest 
manuscript known is in Greek. The writer of this book 
did not aim to deceive anybody. He seems to have 
worked faithfully to give a true history of the events 
of this period. He names the sources of much of his 
authority. Sometimes he quotes documents in full ; at 
other times he gives the substance only. 

The second book is superior to the first in the purity 
of its language, which was doubtless Greek; but in liter- 
ary merit it is inferior to the first, and is less trust- 
worthy. It is in the main a condensation of a larger 

< ;."V * J o 

Avork. We are told that one Jason, of Gyrene, in a large 
work of five volumes, had written a full account of Judas 
Maccabeus and his brother, and their wars against the 
kings of Syria. The author of this work essays to 
abridge these five volumes into one. We know nothing 
further of Jason and his work, so we can not compare 
this abridgment with the original ; nor do we know any- 
thing about the author. No doubt he has given us a 
very creditable abridgment ; but in some respects it dif- 
fers from the first book. The two epistles placed at the 
beginning of this book are regarded as the production of 



148 



THE BIBLE COMPANIOX. 



a later date. They purport to be letters written by the 
Jews in Palestine to their Alexandrian brethren. 

These are the only two books of this class that are 
printed in the Apocrypha of our Bibles. The Catholic 
Church accepts them both as inspired works. The Prot- 
estant Church thinks they are good history, and written 
with honest intentions, but can see no more reason for 
regard i ni;- them as inspired than to regard the writings 
of Josephus in that light. In addition to these two 
books, there are three others that are not printed. The 
first in order of time relates events occurring fifty years 
before the Maccabean period. The second one, or the 
fourth in order, is an amplification of the history of the 
martyrdom of Eleazar and the seven sons of Hannah, 
which is given in a condensed form in the second book. 
The fifth book commences with the same date as the 
second, but brings the history down to the time of 
Herod. 

We have now given a brief outline of the apocryphal 
books as far as they are printed in our Bible. There are, 
probably, a large number not printed. There is, for 
instance, a Samaritan Chronicle, written in Arabic, but 
the characters employed are Samaritan, and it shows 
evidence of having been translated from the Hebrew. 
It begins at the death of Moses, hence it is called the 
book of Joshua. Its history comes down to the third 
century after Christ. 

In addition to the books we have already described, 
a number of books are spoken of by the Old Testament 
writers, some of Avhich might have been inspired, others 
might have been apocryphal. The mention which these 
lost books receive is generally very brief. The writer of 
lumbers appeals, as confirmatory of his statements, to 



THE APOCRYPHA. 



149 



"The Book of the Wars of the Lord.'" 1 This is the only 
mention made of this book. The book of Jashur seems 
to have been of more importance. The author of Joshua, 
in giving an account of the miracle of the stopping of the 
sun, introduces a quotation from this book as further 
proof of the truth of what he narrates. 2 The next men- 
tion is in Samuel, where we are informed that David's 
lament over Jonathan is also to be found in that book. 3 
In all, there are some fifteen of these books mentioned in 
the Old Testament. The books of Kings and Chronicles, 
bearing all evidence of being compilations, are quite free 
to mention their authorities. They content themselves 
with giving an outline only of the life of the individuals 
they mention, but generally tell the reader where fuller 
information can be obtained. 

The writers of apocryphal books by no means confined 
themselves to Old Testament topics. No sooner had 
Christianity fairly started than apocryphal gospels made 
their appearance. Some were, probably, written shortly 
after Christ's death. Luke assigns, as one reason why 
he should write his gospel, the fact that many had under- 
taken to write one, and it was best to have these things 
known to a certainty; 4 ' and a number of the Fathers refer 
to these same apocryphal gospels. One very creditable 
one was the "Gospel according to the Hebrews." Jerome 
translated this book, but both the original and the trans- 
lation disappeared long ago. From the quotations that 
have been made from it, we judge it must have been 
greatly superior to any apocryphal gospel we now have. 

As the date of the wonderful events clustering around 
the life and death of Christ receded in time, we can see 
how many legends concerning Joseph and Mary, as well 

1 Numbers xxi, M. 2 Joshua x, 12, 13. 8 2 Samuel i, 18. 4 Lukei, 1-4. 



150 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



as the infancy, life, and death of Christ, would arise. 
Sooner or later these legends would find embodiment in 
an apocryphal gospel; and the tendency would be to 
increase the number of such gospels by compiling from 
one or more, or slightly altering them. It is considered 
that three of those we now possess are the older in point 
of time, and serve as the originals from which the re- 
mainder of these spurious works have been largely 
derived in the manner just pointed out. We will briefly 
describe these three. 

THE 1'IioTEVANGELIUM OF JAMES. 

This is undoubtedly an ancient book. A part of it 
was written as early as the third century, but it was not 
until a later date that it was ascribed to the apostle 
James. It is wholly taken up with a history of Mary, 
the mother of Jesus. It gives an account of the events 
preceding her birth, a short outline of her childhood, and 
then the circumstances of her marriage to Joseph, and 
the birth of Christ. It bestows a wonderful character, 
not only on Mary, but on her mother as well. It is 
asserted that Mary was very beautiful and pleasing as a 
child; so much so that "all Israel loved her." She lived 
in the temple, "as if she were a dove that dwelt there;" 
and it is asserted that she received her food from the 
hands of an angel. 

The Greek in which this gospel was written is very 
good, and free from errors and corruption. We have a 
Latin narrative of the nativity of Mary. This, in sub- 
stance, is the same as the preceding. It is written in 
Latin, not as a translation, but as if the author, 
thoroughly acquainted with the former gospel, concluded 
to write it in Latin, but used his own words to express 



THE APOCRYPHA. 



151 



simply the sense of the original. Mediaeval poetry draws 
much of its inspiration from this narrative. These 
accounts tell us somewhat of the life of Mary. We have 
two short books describing her death, how the apostles 
were all miraculously gathered to her bedside, and 
angels transported her body to paradise. 

The legends concerning Joseph were at a very early 
date, as early, probably, as the fourth century, embodied 
in a book known as the "History of Joseph the Carpen- 
ter." The original language of this history is Coptic. 
It professes to be the account that Christ gave to his 
disciples of Joseph. It states that Joseph was a widower 
when he married Mary, and had a number of children, 
and by this means seeks to harmonize the theory, that 
Mary ever remained a virgin, with the statement in the 
Bible that certain persons were called Christ's brethren. 
It is to be observed that the books thus far named treat 
of Joseph and Mary, and that the first one seems to be 
the oldest and most respectable one of the series. 

THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS. 

This is also of undoubted antiquity. It is mentioned 
as being used in the second century, but the Greek in 
which it was written is impure, and may betoken a 
later date. It professes to give a minute account of the 
childhood of Jesus from his fifth to his twelfth year- 
One needs but to glance at it to see the great difference 
between the canonical writings and the apocryphal 
accounts. It represents Christ, while yet a child, per- 
forming a series of miracles. Some of them were 
malicious ; such as changing into kids ■ his play-fellows 
who angered him, and in one case going so far as to cause 

the death of a boy who accidentally ran against him. 
10 



152 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Others are childish in their nature. We will quote of 
this class: "And Jesus was in his third year. And 
seeing boys playing, he began to play with them. And 
he took a dried fish and put it in a basin and ordered 
it to move about. And it began to move about. And 
he said again to the fish, 'Throw out thy salt which thou 
hast, and walk into the water.' And so it came to pass." 
There is a second Greek version of this gospel, also a 
Latin form. Though they all differ somewhat in detail, 
yet they are evidently the same work. 

There is also an Arabic gospel of the infancy of 
Christ. It is evidently a compilation. The first nine 
chapters are largely from the gospel of James. The 
larger part of the book is thoroughly Oriental in charac- 
ter, reminding us of the Arabian Nights. The latter 
part is compiled from the gospel of Thomas. This, in 
spite of its absurdities, was once held in high esteem by 
the Nestorian Church. There is also a gospel purport- 
ing to be by Matthew. It is founded largely on the 
gospel of James and that of Thomas, uniting these two 
classes of legends. It gives an outline of Mary's life, 
and of Christ's infancy. It abounds in extravagant 
stories. One of the miracles performed by Christ, when 
but a few months old, was commanding a palm-tree to 
bend down its branches so as to refresh his mother with 
its fruit. In its closing part Ave have told, at more 
detail, the account given by Luke of his disputing in 
the temple. 1 

THE GOSPEL OF NICODEMUS. 

This is one of the most respectable and widely 
circulated apocryphal gospels. It is, in its present form, 

•Luke ii, 40-50. 



THE APOCEYPHA. 



153 



probably a union of two or more books. It was evidently 
written by a Jewish Christian with the design of influenc- 
ing unbelieving Jews, by the example of Annas and 
Caiaphas, who were, it affirms, converted by the testi- 
mony of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, The first 
is an amplification of certain documents, claimed to be 
epistles and acts of Pilate. Part second is a description 
of Christ's descent into Hades, and His wonderful doings 
there. This book was written, probably, in the fifth 
century, and was highly prized in the middle ages, 
being translated into most of the languages of Europe. 
We are to notice this deals with the death of Jesus, not, 
as the others do, Avith His mother's life and His own 
childhood. 

APOCRYPHAL ACTS. 

It is well known that around the memory of great 
souls marvelous stories are apt to gather. It is as if 
they posessed somewhat of a magnetic character that 
attracted to them the stories and anecdotes of the multi- 
tude. This is true not only of the present day, but has 
been true during all past time. "It is not to be 
wondered at, then, that round the name of Christ and 
His apostles, who had brought about social changes 
greater than those effected by the exploits of any hero 
of old, there should gather, as the result of the wonder- 
ing awe of simple-minded men, a growth of the romantic 
and fabulous." As a result, we have apocryphal Acts 
of nearly all the apostles. The only ones of whom we 
have not some account are the two Jameses. Some of 
them are of great antiquity, others more recent. The 
majority of them are full of improbable events, and 
written in favor of some false doctrine. Others, as, for 



154 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



instance, the Acts of Barnabas, were carefully written, in 
a sober vein, by persons familiar with the geography of 
the country, and may contain more or less of history in 
their account. As a general rule, it is refreshing to turn 
from these pages to the simple narrative of Luke. 

APOCRYPHAL EPISTLES. 

As a class, these were written by the men Avhose 
names they bear. And they were men held in high 
honor by the Church. These writings have, however, 
suffered by interpolations and additions. As there are 
but five of them, we will briefly mention each one. Paul, 
in his epistle to the Philippians, 1 speaks of Clement. 
We have a letter written by him to the Church at 
Corinth, and a fragment of a second. It is valuable as 
a witness to the opinions and literature of the first age 
of the Christian Church. We have an epistle purporting 
to have been written by Barnabas, the companion of 
Paul. It was highly esteemed by the ancient Church, 
and was a part of the famous Sinaitic manuscript. 
Ignatius, a pupil of the apostle John, and bishop of 
Antioch, wrote letters to several of the Churches. They 
are among the most interesting of all the relics of 
Christian antiquity. Polycarp was also a disciple of St. 
John, and bishop of Smyrna. He wrote an epistle to the 
Philippians, which is, for the most part, still extant. 
The epistle pf Hermas is a relic of the highest Christian 
antiquity. It consists of three books. An angel, in the 
guise of a shepherd, gives instruction to Hermas. He is 
supposed, by some, to be the Hermas mentioned by Paul 
in Romans. 2 This book, or epistle, was held in high 
esteem by the ancient Church. It will be seen from 

'IV, 3. 2 XVI, 14. 



THE APOCRYPHA. 



155 



these references that as a class these writings rank high, 
and the word apocryphal is scarcely applicable to them. 
Yet, though written by good men, and men honored by 
the Church, they fall below the inspired epistles, and 
contain some foolish statements. 

APOCRYPHAL REVELATIONS. 

These are regarded as amongst the very poorest speci- 
mens of apocryphal literature. "In nothing," says Pro- 
fessor Stowe, "has the human mind more strikingly 
exhibited its own imbecility than in its attempt to 
imitate or counterfeit the divine revelations ;" but these 
attempts have been made. Some of them refer solely 
to Old Testament topics, as if some of the Jews who 
would have nothing to do with Christianity, yet ac- 
quainted with the Revelation of John, sought to write 
books of that nature for the Old Testament canon. We 
have referred to the fact that the second book of Esdras, 
printed in our Bible, was such a book. In addition to 
that we might mention the Revelation of Moses, which 
is undoubtedly very ancient. The Gospel of Nicodemus, 
to which we have referred in this chapter, compiles, to 
some extent, from it. It professes to be an account of 
Adam and Eve given by God to Moses. It has the 
appearance of being a fragment of a larger work. 

Another of the Old Testament apocryphal revelations 
is the "Book of Enoch." It is a very ancient book; 
probably written during the first century, and in either 
Chaldee or Hebrew. It was long supposed to be entirely 
lost, but the traveler Bruce discovered it in the Abys- 
sinian Bible. It consists of a series of revelations sup- 
posed to have been given to Enoch and Noah. It 
describes the fall of angels ; the judgment upon them 



156 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



and their offspring ; the giants ; and contains, also, para- 
bles on spiritual things, and a dream in which Enoch 
foresees the course of events leading to the coming of 
the Messiah. It is regarded with increased interest from 
the fact that some have supposed Jude makes a quota- 
tion from it. 1 It may be, however, that Enoch quotes 
from Jude, or that both are quoting from some other 
writer. 

Among the apocryphal New Testament revelations 
are two books, one ascribed to Paul and one to John. 
That ascribed to Paid was probably written in the fourth 
century. It is a poor production. It describes how the 
soul of a righteous and that of a wicked man leave the 
body at death. It makes great use of angel ministry — 
of both good and bad angels. In addition to the inspired 
Revelation of John on Patmos, there is also an apocry- 
phal one ascribed to him. It is mentioned in one 
writing as early as the ninth century, but Ave do not 
know when it was written. It is wholly concerned with 
the resurrection and judgment. John is represented as 
propounding a series of questions, and a voice from 
heaven answers him. 

The general subject of apocryphal literature is one 
of great interest to the Christian world, but in a hurried 
review we can only glance at the main writings. The 
importance of accepting or rejecting them as a part of 
the Bible, is not so great as has been thought by some. 
The Bible would be a very large book if all of even the 
most respectable of these productions were included in 
it. As the Jewish Church did not accept those of the 
Old Testament, and the early Christian Church did not 
the New Testament ones, it seems a plain duty to reject 

1 Jude 14. 



THE APOCRYPHA. 



157 



them. Most, or at least many, of the New Testament 
apocryphal books, were written to encourage some heret- 
ical doctrine, or absurd notion; such, for instance, as 
the great sacredness of celibacy ; or to account for the 
sinlessness of Jesus by the figment of the immaculate 
conception of His mother as well as Himself, and similar 
things. They deserve no place among the sacred books 
of the Christian Church. They give us no important 
facts and no religious helps that entitle them to a place 
in our Bible. Taking in the whole class of apocryphal 
books, it may be said: "While these documents are of 
considerable interest and value, as giving evidence of a 
wide-spread feeling in early times of the importance of 
the events which form the basis of our belief, and as 
affording us curious glimpses of the state of the Christian 
conscience, and of modes of Christian thought, in the 
first centuries of our era, the predominant impression 
which they leave on our minds is a profound sense of 
the immeasurable simplicity and majesty of the canon- 
ical writings." 



158 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



©he Bible and Science. 




HE Divine Author of all has bestowed upon 
man an inquiring mind, and given him facul- 
ties by the due exercise of which he is enabled 
to learn somewhat of the mysteries which sur- 
round him. In course of time, as observation has been 
added to observation, fact wedded to fact, man has formed 
many theories to explain the present appearance of the 
visible universe. The glowing orb of day, the waxing 
and waning moon, and the twinkling stars of night have 
been studied, their motions inquired into, and, in expla- 
nation thereof, the present theory of astronomy has been 
formulated. And so it is in all departments of knowl- 
edge. Taken collectively, all these theories, in connec- 
tion with the ascertained facts, constitute what we call 
science. 

It is an interesting question, What is the relation 
between the Bible and science? One is a divinely 
inspired message from God to man, the other the results 
of human research into the mysteries of our surrounding. 
On the one hand, some students of nature, carried, away 
by enthusiasm for scientific methods, would reject the 
Bible and its teachings as fitted only for the more 
ignorant states of society. On the other hand, some 
zealous Christians have felt unduly alarmed lest the 
statements of the Bible lose their force by reason of sci- 
entific teaching. And so has grown up the discussion 
of what some call the conflict between science and relig- 




CHRIST DISPUTING IN THE TEMPLE. 



3 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 



161 



ion. At the present day wiser views are coming to be 
held, and this conflict is found to be imaginary only. 
We will now examine these statements more in detail. 

We all know, in matters of this kind, how necessary 
it is to have clear ideas about what we are to discuss. 
So we wish to make some statements about both the 
Bible and science, which we must bear in mind. In 
reference to the Bible, we must not forget the great 
object of its gift to man. We would expect everything 
else to be secondary to that one main object. The intel- 
ligent mechanic makes one piece of mechanism, in which 
everything is made for the purpose of strength and mas- 
siveness. In his next piece of work he may turn his 
entire attention to some light, easy running, swiftly mov- 
ing machine. The object in view will, of course, control 
the material employed. The author of a history attaches 
greater importance to dates and accounts of ancient cus- 
toms and manners than does one who writes a treatise 
on mathematics. 

Now, the great mission of the Bible is to point out 
to fallen man the way of life, and to incite him to walk 
therein. It seeks to accomplish this task "by revealing 
to us more fully than nature can do the attributes and 
character of the Creator, and the requirements of the 
particular moral system under which we have been 
created." 1 

It was necessary that this be made plain to man — 
not at all necessary that his understanding be enlight- 
ened in regard to geology, astronomy, or any branch of 
natural science. This being the case, we would expect 
all references to any branch of science in the Bible to 
be for a secondary object only — that is, to enforce some 

1 Wright's "Studies in Science and Eeligion," p. 356. 



162 



THE BIBLE COMPANION:. 



moral truth; and, furthermore, we would expect them 
to employ the common language of the people in state- 
ment of scientific facts. For instance, the Jews were 
surrounded by polytheistic people, who worshiped many 
gods. It was very necessary that they should be taught 
the divine unity and personality of God. This is done 
in a very complete and thorough manner in the book of 
Genesis. But it was not at all necessary that the Jews 
should receive correct theories on the formation of the 
different strata of the earth, or be made acquainted with 
the constitution of the sun, or any other scientific facts; 
and so we have given only incidental allusions to sci- 
ence — just such allusions as will always be appropriate, 
no matter what discoveries may be made. 

The holy men and prophets, who, under divine guid- 
ance, wrote for us the Bible to be our spiritual guide, 
were, as all successful reformers are, men of but one 
idea. In this case their idea was, however, "the most 
comprehensive and inspiring which the human mind can 
cherish. The truths of religion Avhich they apprehended 
and enforced are of pressing and eternal importance. 
The truths of science which they neglected are compara- 
tively unimportant in their nature. Man can enjoy the 
effects of sunshine, and of alternate day and night, even 
though he be ignorant of the fact that the earth revolves 
on its axis. He can eat the fruits of the vine, and 
nourish his body and mind upon the ripened grain, even 
though the chemistry of vegetable growth and of diges- 
tion are unknown sciences to him." 

We must remember that "the Bible was not written 
with reference to science or philosophy, but with refer- 
ence to the feelings and impressions and needs of the 
great mass of mankind; and they are neither scientific 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 



163 



men nor philosophers." Bearing this in mind, we would 
be foolish to seek in the Bible what Grod never put in 
it. "Look not there for mathematics or mechanics, for 
metaphysical distinctions or the abstruse sciences, but 
look there simply for the way of spiritual life and salva- 
tion, and you will find enough, an abundance, for all 
your spiritual needs." 

And, in regard to science, it is necessary to point out 
that our views as to what is science change from time 
to time, and no one can be sure how much or in what 
respect future discoveries may modify our present the- 
ories. Many illustrations could be given. In biology, 
for instance, the scientific world has been in the last few 
years compelled to consider the claims of the theory of 
evolution; and it is safe to say, whether it be finally 
accepted or rejected, all the older theories will be greatly 
modified by it. Geology is, comparatively speaking, a 
new science; and yet we have seen great changes made 
in its theories. Where the older writers speak of the 
wonderful convulsions of nature which put an end to the 
geological periods, the more recent writers tell us of slowly 
acting causes which, in the course of ages, usher in a 
new period. It is equally so in the field of natural phi- 
losophy. Our present science of sound, heat, electricity, 
etc., rests on a theory which we can describe as being 
the best we have at hand ; but every one knows it has 
elements of great weakness, and it need not be surpris- 
ing if some day a second Newton outline a more satisfac- 
tory one. In fact, our best scholars are very free to admit 
that the unknown is a vastly greater domain than the 
known; and they are very cautious about stating what 
is the conclusion of science on any given point. 

When we come to reflect that the Bible only refers 



164 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



to scientific facts in an incidental way, and only to em- 
phasize some moral lesson; and further, that all true 
scientists are very chary about stating the conclusions of 
science, we must admit that certainly there is a very 
slim basis to proclaim a conflict between science and 
religion. And looking a little farther, all Christian men 
ami women must see that there can be no real conflict. 
On i- Heavenly Father sent us His message, contained in 
the Bible, by divinely inspired men. He is also the 
author of the material universe. If there be any appar- 
ent conflict between science and religion, we may be very 
sure that either science is mistaken in its conclusion, or 
else we have misunderstood the Bible. 

At the present day the Christian world is coming to 
see more and more clearly that, as true friends of religion 
and the Bible, they must be cautious in their explana- 
tion of the meaning of various passages of Scripture, 
unless it be one about whose meaning there is no dispute. 
In this matter they occupy the same ground that sci- 
entific men do in regard to science. The truly scientific 
man accepts facts as conclusive; but all mere theories 
are to be held subject to change, and with all due regard 
to the opinions of others. To illustrate: It is a fact, 
accepted by all scientific men, that there was once a 
glacial age, when all the northern and eastern part of 
the United States was completely covered by ice, much 
as Greenland is to-day. But there are two strongly 
defined theories as to what produced it. A true friend 
of science, no matter which theory he thinks most rea- 
sonable, holds himself in readiness to change or modify 
his views so as to accept any facts that may hereafter be 
discovered. This is, we think, the position of true friends 
of the Bible. The great facts of the Bible — the funda- 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 



165 



mental truths of religion — are plainly stated ; but we all 
know that earnest Christian scholars differ quite widely 
as to the meaning to be given to a great many texts. 
This can not be well helped as long as human nature 
remains what it is. You can never bring two minds to 
view the same statement in quite the same light. 

Furthermore, there is one principle of interpretation 
which the best scholarship of the day is not at all back- 
wards in accepting. That is, speaking of scientific topics, 
we must understand the Bible describes them only as 
they appear to be. The events are described as they 
would meet the eye of a spectator, and not at all in 
accordance with the scientific facts of the case. This is 
no more than is done to-day. We continually speak of 
the rising and setting sun; we know this is not true in 
a scientific sense. Now, a very large and respectful class 
of earnest Christian scholars think that this is the only 
way in which the Bible refers to science at all. Moses, 
in mentioning the clean and unclean animals, asserts 
that the coney and the hare chew the cud. 1 Zoologists 
know they do not; but they belong to the rodents, and 
they are seen sometimes moving their jaws to grind 
their teeth. They had the appearance of chewing their 
cud. Surely no one feels his confidence in the Bible 
shaken because Moses spoke of them, not from a sci- 
entific stand-point, but as they appeared to be. 

In fact, the Christian world has long since ceased to 
fear that science does, or can, in any way, come in con- 
flict with the Bible. You have but to look around you 
and observe that, in every department of science, earnest 
Christian men, in many cases ministers of the gospel, 
are in the very front rank of scientific research. They 

'Leviticus xi, 5, 6. 



166 



THE BIBLE COMPAXIOX. 



are willing to accept any scientific fact. We are not to 
condemn .science because of the utterances of some en- 
thusiasts who speak in her name. Neither are we to 
declare the religious world is afraid of scientific investiga- 
tions because some timorous Christians sound the alarm. 

It seems to us as if this was all that need be said on 
this topic, and yet we know that to stop here would be con- 
sidered by some to be begging the question, so we will 
now proceed to examine some of the points where it is 
stated by some that a conflict exists. About all the 
apparent conflict centers in the statements made in the 
first few chapters of Genesis. In the first chapter of Gen- 
esis, from the first to the twenty-fifth verse, we have an 
outline of creation. This is a portion of one of the 
oldest written documents in the world. It is a brief, 
eloquent statement, Now the question is, do the most 
advanced theories of modern science in any way conflict 
with these statements? The writer would not be under- 
stood as claiming to possess great scientific attainments. 
We do not profess to be able to decide on the merits of 
scientific controversies. All that we shall aim to do is 
to take the theories as they are given us, and compare 
them with this statement in Genesis. 

In the first place, it is not out of place to observe 
that some things in existence were never created. Space 
is an example. We can not conceive of its non-existence. 
So time has not been created, and can not cease to be. 
We can, indeed, conceive of an epoch when none of the 
objects by which the passage of time is measured had an 
existence; but it is impossible to think that time ever 
began or will ever end. Mathematical properties and 
laws were not created, and can not cease. In all worlds, 
and all time, they have remained unchanged. We can, 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 



167 



of course, think of a time when there were no created 
minds to perceive their truth, but they were in existence. 
The same is true of moral law. It exists without 
being created. It is wherever there are moral agents: 
and as God has always existed, and as He exists every- 
where, moral law has always been known. 

Now, in the physical world by which we are sur- 
rounded, we have matter existing either as dead, inert 
substance, or as endowed with life. Let us for the pres; 
ent not consider man at all. We can not define life — 
no definition has yet been framed which includes all the 
phenomena of life. We know that when that subtle 
thing we call life has ceased its influence, the matter over 
which that influence was exerted, whether animal or veg- 
etable, will, sooner or later, be resolved to its elements 
again. There is no way known to science by which 
matter can be annihilated. Its form can be changed. It 
exists now as a gas, now as a liquid, and again as a solid. 
We may reduce it to its chemical elements, but Ave can 
not annihilate it. Some have questioned whether we 
should not also say that matter has always existed. JNTow 
we have no wish to set forth the arguments either for or 
against this view. What we wish to say is, that the 
Bible is utterly silent on this point. We know how 
strangely this will sound to some, yet we respectfully 
maintain that the best Christian scholarship of the day 
freely admits this point. 

The question turns on the meaning of the word 
which we translate by create. The primary meaning of 
this word is, to cut, to carve, to cut out, to form by cut- 
ting or carving. 1 It is employed to state the making of 
a thing for the first time. It is used in such passages 

1 The Hebrew word is Bara, and for these definitions see Gensenius. 



168 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



as these: "Jehovah hath created a new thing in the 
earth, a woman shall compass a man. 1 ' 1 In another 
place we read, "Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing;" 2 
which was a new experience for Jerusalem, which had 
long been sad. We may say that create, as used in 
Genesis, is equivalent to prepare, form, fashion. 3 It is 
equivalent to our word, to make. For instance, we read 
that Grod said, "Let us make man in our own image;" 4 
and it is added, "So God created man in his own im- 
age." 5 But, as if to show us what was the meaning of 
create, we arc further told "God formed man of the dust 
of the ground." We use the word create in English, 
sometimes, where evidently the meaning is not that of 
making something out of nothing, though it docs mean 
to make it for the first time. We speak of creating a 
literature. This is not to bring it out of nothing. It is 
a weaving together of known facts, thoughts, and ideas, 
into new relations. The man who made the first sewing- 
machine, may be said to create it; not out of nothing, 
but out of materials already existing. A man who starts 
a new and successful business, may be said to create it. 
So, also, a man who succeeds in amassing wealth that 
did not visibly exist before, is sometimes said to create 
wealth. Now the theory that the creation spoken of in 
Genesis is something out of nothing, is one which we 
have no right to urge from the words used. 7 

We do not wish to burden this chapter with argu- 
ments. We have only to say that on the point of the 
first creation of matter the Bible is silent. It throws no 



'Jeremiah xxxi, 22. 2 Isaiah lxv, 18. 3 Young's " Concordance." 

4 Genesis i, 26. 5 Genesis i, 27. 6 Genesis ii, 7. 

7 On this point the reader can not do better than to consult Dr. Taylor Lewis' 
" Six Days of Creation." 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 



169 



light whatever on that question. It tells us only of the 
orderly fashioning, according to divine methods, of a 
world that was "without form and void." How it came 
to be in that state, or how long it had previously existed 
in that state, the inspired writer was not commissioned 
to inform us. We sincerely hope our position will not 
be misunderstood. We by no means affirm that matter, 
like time and space, has always existed. The Christian, 
who, firm in his belief, is confident it came into existence 
in accordance with the fiat of Omnipotent power, holds a 
position which science can not undermine, since to it the 
origin of matter is an impenetrable mystery. All we 
wish to say is: this subject being one of the immaterial 
points ; one not at all necessary to be made plain to our 
understanding; one that ought in no way to influence 
our belief in an overruling Providence, or to render 
in any way a life of purity and honor less desirable: all 
this being taken into consideration, we see that it is 
eminently appropriate that the Bible should maintain, 
as it does, silence on that point. 

We have so many important subjects to consider that 
it is not best to mention at any length some questions in 
reference to which, by common consent, our interpreta- 
tion of various passages of Scripture have been changed 
so as to be in keeping with what we have learned of 
nature's ways. All passages which have any reference 
to astronomical questions, are readily explained in har- 
mony with our present theory of astronomy. It seems to 
us very strange that Galileo and Copernicus should have 
been persecuted because their teachings were thought to 
conflict with the Bible. We all love to admit that the 
Bible stands all the firmer when explained in the light 
of their discoveries, 
n 



170 



THE BIBLE COMPAXIOX. 



So, too, in reference to the time employed in the 
work of creation. It is plain to us now, that the days 
of creation mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis 
have not at all the ordinary meaning of the word day. 
This is so generally admitted, and our interpretation of 
the text in this particular is so generally known and 
acquiesced in, that it is not necessary to outline the facts 
on which they rest. Here, too, we can not help noticing 
how much grander are our conceptions of the work of 
creation, when we read this account in Genesis with the 
aid of our present knowledge. It is quite common at 
the present day to regard the six days of creation men- 
tioned by Moses as six great periods, which are supposed 
to have marked the progress of the earth's creation up 
to the advent of man. It is certainly somewhat remark- 
able how closely this connects each day's work with the 
results of modern thought. 

We think it best not to profess to see in this ac- 
count any reference to time at all. Why not say, in 
the language of another, " The object of Moses, in the 
first chapter of Genesis, is so evidently to counteract the 
polytheism of his day, and to assert the monotheism 
which is so characteristic a doctrine of Jewish belief, 
that it could not have been in his mind to make promi- 
nent the petty details of scientific discovery relating to 
the time and mode of creation. But he contents him- 
self in affirming in sublime speech that God is the creator 
of all things. This he does both in general and in detail, 
grouping together under the work of the several days 
the whole list of subjects to which idolatrous worship 
was paid, and affirming that they were all nothing but 
created objects, and that man was in dignity higher than 



THE BIBLE AXD SCIENCE. 



171 



all other created things, and hence it was very foolish to 
worship them." 1 

But aside from the creation of heaven and earth we 
are told of the creation of life, both animal and vege- 
table. Now at the present day the scientific world is 
considering the theory of evolution, which may be briefly 
summed up in the statement that our present species of 
animals and plants are the descendants of older species, 
but they vary in form and other particulars from their 
ancestral species, so as to be better fitted for their sur- 
roundings. In other words, that the forms of animal 
and plant life that we see around us to-day, are the 
results of natural causes acting through the indefinite 
ages of the past. Practically we make use of this prin- 
ciple in every-day life. We know that under the foster- 
ing care of man, we can greatly change both animals and 
plants. 

The improved breeds of domestic animals on the 
one hand, and the superior qualities of fruits and grains 
that have been judiciously cultivated, show that these 
life forms will change in accordance with surround- 
ings; but as to the extent and permanency of those 
changes, there is a great dispute. These improved 
species we have just mentioned, if left to themselves, 
will speedily deteriorate and return to original types. 
The question is, whether, in the course of time, if left to 
the influence of natural causes, the species of animals 
and plants would not only vary as above stated, but that 
these variations would become permanent; and thus we 
might say a new species had originated. And we can 
see with how much care scholars consider such small 

1 Wright, "The Divine Authority of the Bible," p. 196. 



172 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



points as the foregoing, when an attempt is made to 
explain in this manner, not only the derivation of closely 
related species, but whole classes of animals, which at 
present are very unlike in habits and appearance. There 
is, for instance, an apparently impassable gulf between 
the birds and reptiles — the one class possessing many 
qualities which endear them to us; we love to hear their 
singing, admire their plumage, and envy them their 
power of flight. The class reptiles are almost universally 
objects of disgust; and yet we find many points of resem- 
blance in the characters of these two classes, and, accord- 
ing to the theory of evolution, they are the descendants 
of a common ancestral form. 

What we are concerned with is not the truth or 
falsity of evolution. This is a point which we will leave 
for scientific men to settle between themselves. What 
we wish to emphasize is, that on this point, as on all 
purely scientific points, the Bible is non-committal. We 
read the account of the creation of life as follows: "And 
Grod said let the earth bring forth grass and herb-yield- 
ing seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, 
whose seed is in itself." 1 "Let the waters bring forth 
abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl 
that may fly above the earth in the firmament of heaven." 2 
" Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his 
kind, cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth 
after his kind." 3 

Now, if we are justified in drawing any scientific 
conclusion, from this language, it is surely this: That in 
obedience to divine command, the forces of nature 
brought forth life. How that was accomplished, the 
time taken in the work, the steps gone through, are 

1 Genesis i, 11. Genesis i, 20. 3 Genesis l, 24. 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 



173 



topics not possessing in themselves importance enough 
to justify their explanation by an inspired pensman. 
Surely the very best science of the day is in accordance 
with the Bible. It can not possibly account for the 
beginning of life. It freely concedes that it has no suffi- 
cient data to form even a theory on that point. There 
is nothing to disturb our belief that life originated in 
obedience to divine command, or rather that is the only 
explanation possible. 

We can but see how groundless are the fears that the 
theory of evolution in any way conflicts with the Bibli- 
cal account of the creation of life. It may or may not 
be true; we can not, from any light the Bible gives us, 
affirm either its truth or falsity. The plain and simple 
reading of these verses justifies us only in saying that 
some sort of an orderly process was doubtless employed. 1 

But we are not authorized to say the evolutionists 
have hit on it. It is as yet a theory only; as such it 
will always remain. Our scholars are working hard at 
the problem, and, of course, in little details it will be 
changed, or it may be abandoned for something better. 
In any case, the statements in God's Word remain 
unchanged. 

It has been objected to the doctrine of evolution that 
it, in effect, robs God of the honor of creation; that it 
detracts from the reverence we should feel toward Him 
as the maker of all things. Essays and reviews have 
been written to show that this is a wrong supposition; 
to show that, even granting its truth, Christianity does 
not suffer. It is quite time to take a higher ground. 
There are more than three hundred and fifty thousand 
species of animals, not to mention the plants or the 

1 Each was after its kind. 



174 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



countless species of animals that have disappeared in 
the abyss of past times. Which view of God is the 
more ennobling — to think of Him creating by an exercise 
of His omnipotent power the first of each of these forms 
of life, or setting in motion the forces of nature, which 
slowly, as the ages pass, evolve those forms of life best 
fitted for their surroundings? 

The Mosaic account of the creation closes with the 
creation of man: "God said, Let us make man in our 
image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion 
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
and over the cattle, and over all the earth." 1 Science 
comes to no issue whatever with this statement. The 
■'image of God" in which man was created can, of 
course, only refer to his spiritual nature, for God is a 
spirit. The dominion of man over nature is a fact that 
all the history of man, from whatever source derived, 
'out emphasizes. Scientific researches are extending this 
dominion every day. We have but just made a begin- 
ning in our knowledge of electricity, and how to employ 
that subtle force in furthering our wishes. So, too, in 
all the departments of knowledge. Man has not yet 
come to his full inheritance. 

There is a thought that occurs to us in this connec- 
tion. Man Avas given dominion over nature. Yes, but 
how? Not by endowing him with all knowledge, but by 
bestowing on him intellectual powers, by the due exer- 
cise of which he has reached his present position in the 
scale of civilization, and we are not to say what the end 
will be. So, too, the various species of animals and plants 
that Ave discoA'er on the earth to-day were, of course, cre- 
ated by God. Is any man empowered to tell us Iioav 

1 Genesis i, 26. 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 



175 



created? Omnipotent power could have created man, 
and bestowed on him the highest civilization, the widest 
dominion over nature, that he is capable of achieving. 
Infinite Wisdom contented itself with endowing him with 
capacities to improve, leaving him to secure these bless- 
ings by his own exertions under divine guidance. Can 
any one say that to so leave man, in an important sense 
of the word, to work out his own destiny was not the best 
plan to pursue? Why, then, should any one fear lest 
the theory of evolution should finally be established as a 
scientific truth ? If God established natural laws for the 
development of species, and then called life into being, 
and left the forces of nature to change those forms of life 
to best suit the changing conditions around them, who 
is competent to criticise this method? 

There are but two points in the creation of man with 
which science is concerned. These are the antiquity of 
man and his primitive condition. It seems to us, from a 
careful reading of the Biblical accounts, that the Chris- 
tian world, as far as the question of the truth or falsity 
of the Bible is concerned, is utterly indifferent as to what 
science may ultimately conclude on this point. Our 
scholars who have studied into these interesting ques- 
tions (and among this number are some of our most emi- 
nent divines) are very far from agreeing among them- 
selves as to what is the correct answer. Truth is mighty 
and will prevail in time. We simply wish to emphasize 
the fact that the Bible is in no wise concerned with these 
questions; it was not given to teach science, but is in 
strict conformity with any reasonable scientific theory. 

We must remember that the first five books of the 
Bible are historical books ; that they give a general out- 
line of the history of the Jewish people, but that they 



17(3 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



also emphasize and teach those views of God so different 
from the beliefs of the surrounding people. These were 
idolaters. They believed in many gods; they worshiped 
the various aspects of nature; they bowed down to the 
works of their own hand; they made supplications to 
animals. We know what punishments were meted out 
to the Jewish people because they sometimes gave way 
to idolatrous practices. But these books taught the Jews 
thai there was but one God, self-existent from all eter- 
nity, who had created all things, and that worship was 
due to him alone. This is the great burden of the 
inspired books of Moses. But in tracing everything back 
to God as its author, it was necessary to give only brief 
general outlines. Back of Abraham, for instance, we 
have no reason to suppose we have anything more than 
ver} r condensed accounts. We can not now conceive the 
necessity of giving more than this. It deals simply with 
typical persons. For instance, after the fall of Adam 
and the crime of Cain, it is not considered necessary to 
do more than to show the line of descent from Adam to 
Noah. This is done in • the fifth chapter of Genesis. 
Noah's life is described more at length. The important 
part he was chosen by God to fill is described quite 
fully. Then, it is not considered necessary to more 
than trace the descent from Noah to Abraham. But, 
beginning with Abraham, the account grows more 
circumstantial. 

We are not to suppose but what, in the lapse of time 
from the creation to Abraham, there were a great many 
God-fearing patriarchs, performing notable deeds, who 
are not even mentioned by name in the Bible. The 
Bible was not concerned with them at all. Struck with 
this fact, some of the best Biblical scholars of our day 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 



177 



have suggested that we are to regard Adam as not, 
strictly speaking, the first created man, and, therefore, 
the sole progenitor of the human race, but as the first 
called to a representative position as the son of God, 
and the head of a new type of humanity. 1 They point 
out that in the first chapter of Genesis we are given an 
outline of the entire creative work. The creation of man 
is also mentioned. They were created, male and female, 
and with God's blessing they were sent forth to occupy 
the earth. But, of course, the Bible is not concerned 
about telling us when this happened, how they were to 
subdue the earth, or the scale of civilization with which 
they started, or any other details of these primitive men. 

It was not necessary to mention them further in the 
Bible except in an incidental way. So, in the second 
chapter, the Biblical account commences with Adam, 
who was chosen to be the first typical man. And no 
one knows how long a lapse of time, not possessing in 
itself events deemed worthy of a record in the pages of 
Inspired Word, passed from the creation of man generally 
in the first chapter to Adam in the second. It might 
have been but a brief period of time, or it might have 
extended over several thousand years. Neither do we 
know how far in advance of the primitive people Adam 
was in culture. Adam was raised up as the head of a 
new type of humanity. 

Such are the reasonings of some justly celebrated 
scholars. They may, of course, be wrong; they are 
human, and liable to err; but who is competent to con- 
vict them of error? All read the same Bible. What 
man or body of men has the right to say this meaning- 
is the wrong one to take? Is it not the plain duty of 

'"Man in Genesis and Geology," p. 106. 



178 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



all to so explain the Bible, if at all possible, that even 
apparent conflict be avoided? Attention is then directed 
to the fourth chapter of Genesis, where it really seems 
that the inspired narrative implies the existence of other 
people than those of the race of Adam. After Cain had 
received his sentence of exile from Eden, he exclaimed, 
"I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and 
every one that findeth me shall slay me." What infer- 
ence can we draw from this language, except that other 
people were living, of whom he was afraid? Continuing 
to read, we infer that he migrated eastward from Eden 
and joined himself, by marriage, with a member of some 
wandering tribe he found there. Either that, or else he 
married his own sister, and there is no authority for such 
an assumption. It is not stated in the Bible, neither is 
the existence of such a sister at that time mentioned. The 
account further tells us that "he builded a city." Now, 
this act requires both laborers and a population. In 
short, a careful reading of this chapter raises questions 
which seem easy to answer if we suppose other people 
were living, but very difficult to explain in any 
other way. 

Personally, we can see no objection to these views, 
but we do not attempt to decide whether they are right 
or wrong. Let every one be convinced in his mind. 
On one point only are we very certain; that is, the 
Christian world may await with perfect calmness the 
verdict of the scientific Avorld on these points. We pro- 
test against those presumjrtuous scholars, who, instead 
of grounding their theories on facts in science, seek to 
fortify their conclusions by an appeal to their under- 
standing of the Bible. The mission of the Bible is 
infinitely higher than this. Whether man was a denizen 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 



179 



of this planet during the Miocene age or not, whether 
he preceded the glaciers of the Glacial age, appeared 
during that age, or not until it was long past, are ques- 
tions which can not concern the Bible. Whether this 
age was one hundred thousand years ago or six thousand, 
matters not. Whether man's first condition in life was 
that of abject savagism, from whence he has gradually 
arisen, or whether savages themselves are descendants 
of a higher civilized people, may be left for science to 
settle as best it can. The Bible was given, not to settle 
these points, but to teach us right ideas of God and duty. 

We have spent some time in examining some of the 
main points, where there might be thought to be a con- 
flict between science and religion. We trust that what 
we have had to say may help assist some in clearly see- 
ing that the conflict is apparent only. Such has been 
the history; such will be the history of the future. Dr. 
Whewell, speaking on this point, tells us, "Scientific 
views, when familiar, do not disturb the authority of the 
Scriptures." "When the language of Scripture, invested 
with its new meaning, has become familiar to men, it is 
found that the ideas which it calls up are quite as 
reconcilable as the former ones with the most entire 
acceptance of the providential dispensation. And when 
this has been found to be the case, all cultivated persons 
look back with surprise at the mistakes of those who 
thought that the essence of the revelation was involved 
in their own arbitrary version of some collateral circum- 
stance in the revealed narrative. At the present day we 
can hardly conceive how reasonable men could ever have 
imagined that religious reflections on the stability of the 
earth, and the beauty and use of the luminaries which 
revolve round it, would be interfered with by an 



180 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



acknowledgment that this rest and motion are apparent 
only. And thus the authority of revelation is not shaken 
by any changes introduced by the progress of science in 
the mode of interpreting expressions which describe 
physical objects and occurrences." 

We can go further, and say that the study of nature 
must ever lead to true religion. Let there be no fear 
that the issues of natural science shall be skepticism or 
anarchy. Through all God's works runs a beautiful 
harmony. The remotest truth in His universe is linked 
to that which lies nearest to His throne. It has been 
well said that an undevout astronomer is mad. With 
still greater force might it be said that he who attent- 
ively studies nature and fails to see in her ways the 
workings of providence, must indeed be blind. Who the 
guide of nature, but only the God of nature? In Him we 
live, move, and have our being. Those things which 
nature is said to do are by divine art performed, using 
nature as an instrument, Nor is there any such divine 
knowledge working in nature herself, but in the guide of 
nature's work. 

Examine what department of nature we will, we are 
speedily convinced of an intelligent plan running through- 
out all the works, which eloquently proclaim a divine 
author. In the rock-ribbed strata of the earth we can 
read, as intelligently as though it w r ere written on parch- 
ment, the story of the creation. And what is so inter- 
esting as this rock-written history of the world, slowly 
fitting for mankind? Read of the coal stored away for 
future use; of whole continents plowed by glaciers and 
made fertile for man. Think of the seons of ages that 
this earth swung in space, all the types of creation 
prophesying of the coming man. Who can ponder these 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 



181 



over without coming to the belief of an author and 
finisher of all this glory? Thus does a devout study of 
nature discourse to us of the God of nature. 

Have no fear of a conflict between science and the 
Bible. Science is but the results arrived at by earnest 
men seeking to learn God's methods of work in the 
great world of nature. The Bible is simply the store- 
house in which is collected those precious truths that God 
has seen fit to reveal of Himself and His government, 
His message to sinful man, imparting to him a knowledge 
of the glorious destiny, and how to attain to the same. 
When we see a rainbow spanning the sky we admire the 
different colors composing it, but the human eye can not 
just see where the one color ends and the other begins. 
There is a beautiful play of color where they commingle 
and overlap. The spectroscope will separate these 
colored bands, and show the relation between them. 
Nature gives us one view of the wisdom and power of 
God, its creator. The Scriptures show us His goodness 
and love. But we notice these two views coalesce, and 
the most soul-satisfying glimpses are there obtained. 
We may not, with our present human understanding, be 
able to trace the exact division, and say with a certainty, 
this belongs to revelation, that to science; but we need 
not doubt there is such a division, and that some time, 
perhaps not in this world, we shall see clearly what we 
now view through a glass darkly. 



182 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Bible and (§i^itigisms. 

HE Bible is the religious classic of the common 
people. It plays an important part in all the 
affairs of life. It enters alike into the joys 
and sorrows of existence ; teaches the proper 
enjoyment of the one, and lightens the other. So true is 
this that the people regard with jealous eye any attempt 
to change or vary the meaning of any of the passages 
of Scripture. We must all remember, however, that it 
is human nature to go to extremes, to assume that we 
arc surely right, and others as surely wrong, when, per- 
haps, a little patient investigation would convince us 
that we have been holding some error. 

So, when we read of criticisms on the Bible, we are 
not to turn away in disgust, exclaiming, "The Bible is 
superior to all criticism." Let us remember that the 
office of criticism is to establish the truth. It may be 
favorable as well as unfavorable. We must remember 
that all minds can not see alike. When we use such 
expressions as " the teachings of the Bible," Ave are using 
really an indefinite term. It may mean what it really 
does teach, or simply our understanding of what it 
teaches. It may mean what men have generally come 
to regard as its teachings; or, it may mean what the 
Holy Spirit intends it to teach. So we can see this ques- 
tion has really two sides. Of course, what the Holy 
Spirit really intends it to teach is the same "yesterday, 
to-day, and forever." But what men have regarded the 




BIBLE AND CRITICISMS. 



185 



Bible as teaching, that is judged by the light of our 
understanding, must slowly change. Advance in sci- 
entific learning, better knowledge of the original lan- 
guage, more thorough study of the Bible, researches into 
the manners and customs of Oriental lands — all these 
are continually throwing new light on obscure passages, 
and giving new meaning to the lessons intended to be 
taught, This is properly included in criticisms. 

It is not forbidden us to "search the Scriptures," 
but we are invited to do so; and we conceive it is the 
duty of all Christian scholars to bring their learning to 
bear on this point. And they are largely active in that 
field at present. They are doing much now, as they 
have in the past, to modify some of the supposed teach- 
ings, and bring to us a clearer understanding of its 
meaning. We are not to forget that all the Protestant 
world has gained by the Reformation inaugurated by 
Luther had its beginning in protests against received 
views as to what the Bible taught. 

The progress of Christianity in the past has been 
greatly hindered by the unwise course of friends of the 
Bible, who have sought to commit its pages to theo- 
ries of the origin of things. In a former chapter 1 we 
referred to many of these scientific theories, and have 
shown with what little reason it was sought to support 
them by the Bible. The simple fact is, scientific theories 
must stand or fall on their own merits. The Bible is 
indifferent to their claims. No one doubts but that 
Christianity was injured by some of the early astrono- 
mers who thought that the earth was fiat, that it stood 
still, and that the heavenly bodies moved around it. 
They were so sure they were right that they proclaimed 

1 Bible and Science. 



186 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



the Bible taught their view. We learned a long while 
ago to laugh at their views. 

AVe have perhaps said all that is necessary on this 
point in the chapter to which we have already referred 
We simply wish to repeat, and we feel that we but em- 
phasize the best Christian scholarship of the day when 
we do so, that, as friends of the Bible, it is unwise to 
claim that its writers had any clear ideas of science. We 
gain nothing by supposing that Moses understood geol- 
ogy, or that Job understood all about gravitation and 
astronomy. They were good observers, and described 
things as they appeared to them correctly, but not scien- 
tifically. The aim of the Bible is not to teach science, 
and is not, and can not be, in conflict with any science 
whatever, since it affirms nothing scientifically. Now, it 
has been the office of critical study to relieve the Bible 
of the great load of scientific theories which men had put 
upon it. 

The book of Job, as it exists to-day, is a beautiful 
poem. It conveys in an impressive manner an idea of 
God's treatment of men. It rebukes in a striking way 
the holders of some false notions, such as that sickness, 
sorrow, and trouble are sent as punishments from God. 
It seems to us unwise that good men, friends of the 
Bible, should attempt to show from its pages that Job 
understood the law of gravitation, and was acquainted 
with the fact of the revolution of the planets and of our 
solar system around some far-distant center. Every ref- 
erence he makes to anything of that kind has a much 
simpler explanation. It is as necessary for us here as it 
is in any department of learning, to always choose the 
simplest explanation possible that will reasonably account 
for all the facts of a case. 



BIBLE AND CRITICISMS. 



187 



We have to thank Christian scholarship for those 
reverent critical studies which have rendered it so plain 
that men, even friends of the Bible, have no right to 
claim that any scientific theory they may hold is sup- 
ported by the Bible. But there are also certain spiritual 
and moral theories that are undergoing change; that 
is to say, with increased knowledge we begin to have 
clearer light as to what the Bible does say on these 
points. It is a constant tendency of human nature for 
men to assume that their views are right and other men's 
wrong. Looking back over the past, we can see how 
critical study of the Bible has removed from it the 
burden of many false views — false views as to what the 
Bible really taught. It was not so many years ago that 
good men and women were ready to declare that little 
infants dying were sometimes consigned to eternal pun- 
ishment. It seems strange to us that they should have 
thought so in the face of Christ's declaration "of such is 
the kingdom of heaven." They were driven into this 
belief because they misunderstood the meaning of some 
passages of the Bible. It is critical study of the Bible 
that has relieved it of this burden. 

Then there is another belief that has of late years 
been given up; that is the idea that, in some way or 
another, all the people that ever lived on the earth were 
mixed up with the sin of Adam, and were guilty with 
him in the matter. Now we see clearly that no being is 
responsible for the wrong-doing of another, save as we 
exert our influence in that direction. We are certainly 
not to blame for the sins of one who lived thousands of 
years before us. The wonder is that good people would 
ever have claimed the Bible taught this. Sin is inten- 
tional doing wrong, and belongs to the doer. " The soul 
12 



18S 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



that sinneth it shall die." So we might go on and give 
other examples, and show how a more careful study of 
the Bible has changed some views that were once held. 
We must notice, however, that it is always unimportant 
points that are changed. The great truths of Chris- 
tianity, the groundwork on which the Bible rests, lias 
not been changed in the past and will not be in the 
future; and, furthermore, that it is not the statements of 
the Bible that are changed, but our understanding of the 
language used. At times, when we arc gazing at a stately 
mansion, a change of but a few feet in our position will 
cause a window, which had previously been dark and 
gloomy, to glow resplendent with the reflected beams of 
the sun; so, too, as Ave advance in knowledge, and 
patiently study God's word, we come to places in our 
experience where verses, and even whole chapters, which 
had previously given us only stern views of God's meth- 
ods, suddenly grow radiant, and we see reflected from 
them God's goodness and mercy as well. The reading of 
the verses, of course, remains the same, but, like the 
shield in the story, the stand-point from which they are 
read makes a great difference in the meaning conveyed. 

Other burdens have been lifted off of the pages of 
the Bible through a better undestanding of physical laws. 
How strange it seems that men ever thought that had 
our first parents not fallen from their state of primal 
innocence death would never have entered this world: 
that these bodies would ever have retained their youth- 
ful health and vigor, and that the cruel inroads of death 
which we witness on every side would never have taken 
place! Increasing search for truth in the Bible, and in 
the field of physical science, has shown that the death 
wherewith Adam was visited as a penalty for his sins 



BIBLE AND CRITICISMS. 



189 



was spiritual death. He disobeyed the commands of 
God; he fell from his state of innocence, and thus this 
spiritual death entered into the world. This death every 
one that sins dies, and he dies like Adam, "in the day," 
at the time, he sins. 

But the death of the body is the necessary result of 
our organization. We live but by death. The tired 
heart must some time cease to beat, the fires of the 
fevered brain must some time burn low, and, as dust we 
are, unto dust we must return. Had not sin entered the 
world this result must have still followed. We read the 
same Bible that our fathers did, but having moved on 
to other ground, that portion of the Bible telling us of 
Adam's fall, and the death that thereby entered into the 
world, conveys to our mind a different impression from 
what it did to them. And we wonder that they thought 
differently. Let us be cautious in our judgment, for as 
our knowledge increases new light will break into our 
mind. Another generation will sit in judgment on our 
opinion. 

So, too, our ideas as to how the sublime sacrifice of 
Christ, His death on the cross, operates to save men, 
have been greatly changed in the course of years. This 
is called the atonement; it should be called the reconciling 
work of Christ. The great Bible truths, that men are 
saved by Christ, redeemed by His blood, are more and 
more clearly held as most precious truths. But when 
men come to reason about the matter, and try to state 
just how this effect is brought about, they make sad 
work of it. Perhaps, even now, we are ignorant of the 
true way. A great many theories have been held on 
this point. Sects have arisen because men did not view 
this matter in quite the same light. Some of the older 



190 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



views have been altogether given up. They could not 
stand before the intelligent scholarship of the day. The 
great central truth remains that we are " redeemed by 
the precious blood of Christ." It is not essential that 
any one should know exactly how this is done. The 
great tiling is to accept the grace so freely offered. 
Correctness of theory in this matter is not at all neces- 
sary. Were this the case, full information would have 
been given us in the Bible. The theories and beliefs of 
men on this point must stand or fall only as they are 
in accord with the light received as the result of careful 
research in the Bible. 

We all ought to see, and many such illustrations as 
we have given could be made, that Avhat the Bible really 
is, what the spirit intended by the language used by the 
men who wrote it, is one thing; what some good or 
bad men represent it as being or teaching, may be an 
altogether different thing. We all of us know, and can 
recall, how the cause of Christianity has been injured by 
the acts of well-meaning friends of the Bible committing 
its pages to their theories and views. 

All of us know that, of late years, increased attention 
has been bestowed on some of the Old Testament books, 
and some severe criticisms have been made on some of 
the laws of Moses, and some of the acts of the Jews. 
Now, in such a matter as this it is always best to answer 
the criticism in a fair, candid spirit. We gain nothing 
by denouncing the persons who make them. We have 
neither inclination nor space to consider all the points, 
but a general remark on this wdiole class of criticism is 
not out of place. We must not lose sight of the fact 
that the Jews were in an imperfectly developed state, 
and many of the rules and regulations of Moses, which 



BIBLE AND CRITICISMS. 



191 



were eminently fitted for them in their state of culture, 
would not be fitting for more advanced people. Christ's 
remarks on the law, in regard to divorce, are capable of 
a wide application. It was given them by Moses, because 
of the hardness of their hearts. 1 

It is doubtless true that Moses and others of the 
Old Testament writers sanctioned usages that, from our 
present stand-point, are not quite right, but they were 
best for the people in their state of development at the 
time when they were given. All wise legislative law- 
makers understand that a dead law is worse than none 
at all, and that it is not wise to legislate in advance of a 
public sentiment that will not execute the law. It is not 
fair to charge any system or code of laws with the faults 
that once existed, but which have since been abrogated. 
Shall we condemn our country, or the present inhabit- 
ants of England, Scotland, or France, because they once 
sanctioned the burning of witches? In like manner, is it 
fair to accuse the Bible of teaching some things permitted 
three thousand years ago, which have been repealed in 
the New Testament? We are not to conclude that God 
approved of the barbarous punishment inflicted by the 
Jews, and their method of treating other people. All 
that is in conflict with entire love has been repealed by 
Christ. The law is, thou shalt love thine enemy. 

When Joshua, and the people with him, took "Achan 
and his wife, and his sons and his daughters, his oxen 
and his asses, and his sheep . . . and burned them 
with fire, after they had stoned them with stones," we 
are not to conclude their conduct was pleasing to God. 
God doubtless bore with it in view of the hardness of 
their hearts, their ignorance, and their want of develop- 

1 Matthew xix, 8. 



192 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ment in moral things. Before this occurrence, Grod had 
signified his method in this passage: "The fathers shall 
not be put to death for the children, neither shall the 
children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall 
be put to death for his own sin." 1 

Professor Stowe thus expresses himself: "The Bible 
has various and infinite adaptations. Some portions are 
better understood in some parts of the world than in 
others. Home parts were better understood in the past 
than now — other parts will be better understood in the 
future than ever before- — while again there arc other 
portions more closely adapted to the present time than 
to any other portions of the world's history; for it was 
written not for any one age or nation, but equally for all 
ages and nations, and with ;i divine foreknowledge of 
all these needs and adaptations." 

We are not to forget, finally, that there are mysteries 
in tin 1 Bible which the wisest scholarship can not clear 
up. We can not, by searching, find out the Almighty 
to perfection. What finite mind can comprehend the 
existence of God from all eternity? The Bible does not 
attempt to explain these mysteries at all. It does not 
explain, it only asserts the fact. So, too, there are mys- 
teries all around us — even our own daily life is full of 
them. Because we can not always understand the 
mysteries of the Bible, we are no more to reject it than 
because we can not understand some of the statements 
of science. We are not to reject its teachings. We can 
have faith always; but knowledge is often beyond our 
reach. 

1 Deuteronomy xxiv, 16. 



THE DELUGE. 



THE SUPERNATURAL AND MIRACULOUS. 



195 



©he Supernatural and CQiragulous. 

jST old proverb says : " Doubt is the portal 
through which we enter into the temple of 
knowledge;" and reflecting minds must see 
how much truth there is in such a statement. 
It is fatal to all real advance to have bounds set beyond 
which we may not venture. The central, the prevailing- 
idea of astronomy, in olden times, was that the earth was 
the center of the solar system. It was considered heresy 
to doubt this statement. No advance in astronomy was 
possible until this doctrine was overthrown, and men 
were at liberty to accept other statements. In natural 
science the influence of Aristotle was so great that no 
scholar of reputation thought it safe to differ from his 
conclusions. Under such circumstances it is not strange 
that advance in knowledge was slow. 

With the abandonment of older theories it becomes a 
settled principle in science that theories are authoritative 
only as they rest on observed facts, and that the true 
way is to hold theories subject to facts, ready to change 
them whenever the facts authorize us to do so. It was 
inevitable that this feeling should exert an influence in 
the field of religion; that here, too, men should ask for 
the grounds of belief, and ask that they be tested by the 
common observation and experience of mankind. 

The Christian world is under obligations to meet, as 
far as it can, this demand. We think it will be admitted 
by all candid men that, especially of late years, Christian 




196 



THE BII1LE COMPANION. 



scholars have not been at all backward in subjecting 
their religious beliefs, as far as practicable, to scientific 
tests. It can no longer be claimed that religion is afraid 
to meet science with its own mode of warfare. We have 
endeavored, in several chapters, to show that there were 
no scientific theories in conflict with any statement in 
the Bible. And we have given our reasons for assert- 
ing such conflict will never arise. We think it could be 
as easily shown that no Christian belief is contrary to 
scientific thought. 

To cover this whole subject would require a volume 
by itself. We must, therefore, pick out but few of the 
many topics. There are men reasonably well informed, 
and diposed to be fair in their treatment of others, who 
can not treat respectfully a man who favors the notion 
that there is anything supernatural in the world. They 
think that only superstitious, illy-informed men believe 
in anything supernatural. It is not a little remarkable, 
however, that this class never give a definition of the 
"supernatural" — they never give even to their own 
minds a statement of what the supernatural is. From 
their manner of speaking about it we may infer that 
they regard it as something weird, ghostly, and wholly 
unreasonable. 

It is equally true that many, who believe there are 
events that may be called supernatural, never, even to 
their minds, define just what they mean. It is always 
well to give a definition of what we uphold or decry. 
This is necessary not only to give clearness to our own 
thoughts, but to convey clear ideas to others of what it 
is Ave believe or disbelieve. So let us endeavor to define 
the supernatural. All know, when they stop to reflect, 
that our w T ord super means above. So the first mean- 



THE SUPERNATURAL AND MIRACULOUS. 197 

ing of supernatural is above, or beyond, outside of, the 
natural. Natural is derived from a Latin word, and 
means to be bom, or to begin to be. Hence it means all 
that begins to be, or comes to pass, by necessary laws. 

We look around us and we see a great many effects 
happening that we ascribe at once to natural laws. We 
toss a stone into the air, and it falls to the ground. 
We inflate a balloon with hydrogen gas, and it rises 
rapidly. We explain both occurrences as the results of 
natural laws. We are confident that under similar cir- 
cumstances the same results will always follow. Should 
a traveler tell us that in some distant land he had 
observed that on throwing a heavy stone into the air it 
remained suspended there, we would at once reject his 
story. We have learned from a large body of facts that 
certain causes produce certain effects. We are certain 
that, all things being equal, the same cause will always, 
at all times and places, jDroduce the same or similar 
results. All these belong to the realm of nature — all 
that comes to pass by natural- or necessary laws. 

The question is, Is there a realm in which given 
causes will not necessarily produce the same effect — 
where one of several effects may be produced ? In 
nature there is no freedom of action — all is necessary. 
Is there a place where freedom exists ? Is there a realm 
of liberty ? If there be such a realm, or such a class of 
actions, where either of several results may happen, this 
realm, or this class of actions, may properly be called 
supernatural — meaning thereby, not that it is more gen- 
eral than the natural, or superior to the natural, but that 
it is outside of nature. 

Any one who will stop and consider the matter must 
speedily admit that there is just such a realm, that there 



198 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



is just such a class of actions. We know that, as human 
beings, many of our actions are of this nature. No one 
can or will deny that, in some acts where we chose in 
one direction, we were at liberty to choose the opposite. 
All human laws are based on this principle; the only 
right we have to punish criminals is because they might 
have done differently. We go on the assumption that 
when they chose to do one way they were at liberty to 
choose another way. 

Those acts are not called unnatural, though individ- 
uals sometimes act in a manner that deserves to be called 
unnatural. A mother may neglect her child; such an 
act we call unnatural. But there are many acts, which 
are properly free acts, not unnatural. They arc not 
necessary acts; they arc properly supernatural. The 
acts for which we blame individuals are not the desires 
or exercises of the sensibility from which they can not 
escape. We can not avoid pain from lacerated muscles, 
or from an injury from which we can not escape. Nor 
do we blame one for an error in judgment. We do not 
blame ourselves for bodily infirmities and deformities. 
We may regret them, but do not blame ourselves for 
them, unless we brought them on by our own wrong acts. 
As far as our bodies are concerned, we are in the realm 
of the necessary; the same is true of our feelings, our 
impulses, and of our intellects. But we do have power 
of choice in free acts. We may choose in several ways. 
These choices are properly supernatural; they are lifted 
out of the adamantine chain of fate. 

The supernatural, then, is not the ghostly, the weird, 
nor is it the unnatural, nor the unexpected, nor yet that 
which is inconsistent with the natural. It is the moral 
realm ; it is that kind of actions of which only the higher 



THE SUPERNATURAL AND MIRACULOUS. 



199 



order of beings are capable, and it includes only a part 
of these actions — the moral part. All of the free choices 
of God are supernatural — His choice to create, whether 
by a slow process of development, one form from another, 
or by a direct act of will, was supernatural. It is not a 
mark of proficiency in knowledge, or of a mind free from 
the unreasonable, to deny the supernatural. There is 
nothing contrary to the spirit of science to believe in it. 

We have shown that it is not unreasonable to believe 
in the supernatural, but that every day we see the per- 
formance of acts of this nature. Some may say this is 
not the common meaning attached to the word supernat- 
ural. Every one may admit all that has been so far 
said, and yet refuse their assent to what is ordinarily 
implied by the word supernatural. They give to the 
word supernatural the meaning which we ordinarily 
ascribe to the word miraculous. Thus, it may be said, 
cures wrought by the aid of medicine are natural cures; 
those wrought by Christ are supernatural, and it is this 
meaning of the word that we do not believe in. This 
brings us, then, to the consideration of miracles. 

The Christian Scriptures affirm the occurrence of cer- 
tain acts which they call miracles. These, no doubt, 
greatly strengthened the confidence of those who wit- 
nessed them in the character of the men who wrought 
them, and in their claims to be divinely commissioned 
of Grod. But to us, who see no such manifestations of 
wonder-working power, they are a burden to be carried, 
and to many they are a stumbling block. Some reject 
or explain away all miracles. In this case, also, defini- 
tion plays a most important part. It is necessary to give 
clearness to our thoughts. 

Believers in miracles are in part, at least, responsible 



200 



TIIK 151BLK COMPANION. 



for the prevailing skepticism in regard to them. It is 
fair to hold parties that represent or define anything in a 
way that justifies reasonable men in rejecting it, to blame 
for such rejections. We think this has been done with 
miracles. We believe a definition of miracles can be 
given which, while it may not make plain how a miracle 
is wrought, will yet remove everything out of the way 
of reasonably believing in miracles. 

Before thus defining miracles we will remark that we 
may believe in a thing as a fact — a real event — while 
we know nothing as to how it is done or comes to pass. 
Many may believe rightly in modern telegraphy as a 
fact, who do not know how it is done. We all believe 
that somehow tin 1 mind is quickly aware of an injury to 
the remote parts of the body. No one knows how the 
mind is made aware of this. We know it as a fact, 
even if destitute of this knowledge. Some may have a 
theory about it, but no one knows whether his theory be 
true or not. A great many illustrations could be given, 
showing that many facts in natural science arc known to 
be facts, for which no explanation is given. It would 
certainly be very absurd for any one to believe only what 
he could understand. 

Some have undertaken to define miracles, and have 
included in their definitions, not only some things that 
thev do not know to be true, but some statements seen 
to be false. It is never safe to define a thing farther 
than we understand it. We have been told that a mir- 
acle is a violation of a natural law. No one knows, or 
has a right to assert, such a thing. It is common among 
well-informed persons, and some who claim to be scient- 
ists, to speak of violating or transgressing a natural law. 
No such thing was ever done, or, at least, no one knows 



THE SUPERNATURAL AND MIRACULOUS. 201 

that it was ever done. A man eats or drinks some sub- 
stance, and is made sick thereby. We may say he has 
broken natural laws. He has, however, done no such 
thing, but is sick simply because natural laws are not 
broken. Strychnine taken into the stomach in a given 
quantity produces, by natural laws, certain effects. A 
man takes the strychnine, and the effect follows. JNTo 
natural law is broken or set aside. The man may have 
transgressed a moral law, but certainly he has not a 
natural one. 

Others would say a miracle was a "suspension of a 
natural law;" but, so far as men can see, no natural law 
is ever suspended. We may raise some heavy body in 
air, and hold it there by muscular power. We over- 
come the force of gravity, but do not suspend it — it is 
acting all the time. So those who define a miracle in 
that manner are putting in their definition what they 
have no means of knowing to be true. Others again 
would say that it is indeed true that in ordinary events 
Ood works by natural law, but when He performs a mir- 
acle He does it without the aid of natural law. No one 
has a right to make such an assertion, because no one is 
in position to know. 

The only right way to proceed is to define only so far 
as we know, and there to stop, no matter how incom- 
plete the definition may be. We must try and see in 
what sense the writers of the Bible used the word which 
we have translated miracle. We may thus learn their 
ideas of it. There are three Hebrew words translated 
miracle. One means "a sign;" the second, "a wonder;" 
the third, "to be wonderful." There are two Greek 
words translated miracles; and one is translated by the 
phrase, " workers of miracles." The real meaning of 



202 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



the first is "an act of power," the second "a sign," and 
the third, which occurs but once, is "powers." It would 
seem from these words that tlio writers of the Bibld 
make no statements of how a miracle was wrought. 
They were simply wonders, signs, and exhibition of 
powers. 

It we will consult a dictionary we will see that the 
real meaning of our word miracle is, "a wonder, a won- 
derful thing." The element of wonder is an essential 
thing in a miracle. When Christ raised up Lazarus 
from the dead, all who saw it were filled with wonder. 
To them it was a miracle — a wonderful event. Should 
it happen that every one who dies was raised up after 
a few da vs we should cease to wonder at it — we should 
expect it to happen. We might not be able to explain 
it any better than before, but it would no longer be a 
miracle. 

There is therefore no ground for defining a miracle 
as a violation or suspension of natural law, or as some- 
thing wrought without the aid of natural law. It is to us 
a wonderful, unexplainable event, supposed to be worked 
by divine power. There is nothing foolish, nothing 
absurd in the belief that such events do occur. We will 
take, for instance, the raising of Lazarus. We will sim- 
ply say that it is neither foolish, nor opposed to science, 
to believe in such an event. We freely admit that we 
can not possibly explain it. No one is authorized to say 
that Christ violated or set aside, or dispensed with the 
working, of any natural law. The wisest scientist in the 
world is not competent to say it is impossible. They 
can truly say that the greatest advance of human learn- 
ing can not avail to call back the spark of life, and set 
anew the wondrous machine of the human body in 



THE SUPERNATURAL AND MIRACULOUS. 203 

motion, but they certainly are not prepared to say that 
it can not be done. 

The native of some tropical land, who had never seen 
ice nor snow, would listen incredulously to the tale of 
the traveler who told him that in his country, at certain 
seasons of the year, men and animals could walk on the 
frozen surface of a river. Judging from the native's 
limited experience, such a thing is an impossibility. The 
wisest man that ever lived, speaking from the widest 
experience obtainable by man, knows but the mere begin- 
ning of physical science. We are yet but children play- 
ing on the seashore; before us is the infinite ocean of the 
unknown. None but dabblers in learning will undertake 
to say what is possible, what impossible. We can, then, 
freely admit that we do not understand the miracles of 
the Bible; we do not profess to know how God works 
them. If any one can explain them they are welcome 
to; but no one but an ignorant man will say they are 
impossible. 

Every scholar knows there is not a branch of learning 
which does not rest down on statements which we accept 
but can not explain, yet we do not reject science because 
it has mysteries ; neither shall we reject religion because 
it, too, has mysteries. In science there is a great body 
of facts which we can understand, which we can utilize 
in every-day life, to beautify and ennoble our existence. 
So, too, in religion, the most important truths are plain 
and clear to the understanding of men. Rightly used, 
they not only do much to enhance the value of present 
life, but unfold to man clear ideas of the Great Beyond. 



204, 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



©he Deluge. 




FTER the earth had boon inhabited some time, 
according to the Bible, a deluge destroyed 
nearly all the men on the earth. This flood 
lias elicited much study on the part of friends 



of the Bible. It has also been made the matter of much 
adverse criticism on the pari of some disbelievers in the 
Bible. We can sum up the Bible account of the deluge 
very briefly. The account in Genesis gives as the reason 
for this destructive visitation : the extreme wickedness 
of men. We are told that they had become very wicked. 
There were giants in those days. Men are usually called 
great in proportion to the amount of human blood they 
have shed, or caused to be shed. These giants were 
probably great warriors. It is idle to attempt to com- 
pute the number of men on the earth at the time of the 
flood. We have no data whatever for an estimate on 
this point. 

Noah, being forewarned of the flood, built an immense 
floating house, called an ark, in which he and his fam- 
ily — in all, eight persons — went, and were preserved 
alive through the deluge. Noah was directed how to 
build the ark. How this direction was given we do not 
know, whether in a dream, or an impression for which 
he could give no reason, or in a more direct commu- 
nication, we are not told. The size of the ark is quite 
definitely given in the Biblical account. It was three 
hundred cubits long, fifty wide, and thirty high. The 



THE DELUGE. 



205 



length of a cubit is indefinite. It is the distance from 
the point of the elbow to the tip of the longest finger. 
Eighteen inches is the probable length. As there seemed 
to be need for as much room in the ark as could be made 
out, some have supposed the cubit was twenty-two inches. 
There is no evidence, however, that the cubit used in 
the building of the ark was any longer than the ordi- 
nary one. 

This gives us, then, four hundred and fifty feet for the 
length, seventy-five for the breadth, and forty-five for the 
height. There were, probably, three stories to it. It 
was to be built of gopher wood. This is a Hebrew word, 
and means a wood abounding in pitch; so it was proba- 
bly built of cypress or cedar. It would seem to have 
had but one door with, at least, one window. Into this 
ark went Noah and his family, "in the six hundreth 
year of Noah's life, second month, and seventeenth day 
of the month." We are told of the gathering in of the 
animals that were to be saved with him. We read, 
further, of the rising waters and the destruction of all 
life. The gradual withdrawal of the waters is men- 
tioned. After five months, we are told, the ark rested 
on the mountains of Ararat. These are a chain of 
mountains in the land of Armenia. There is a mount- 
ain called by that name to-day, but we do not know it 
was on that individual mountain. 

This should be borne in mind by some who make 
merry over the " mistakes of Moses," and trouble them- 
selves to understand how elephants and camels could get 
down from the almost inaccessible summit of Mount 
Ararat. When a man speaks of driving his ox team 
over the Rocky Mountains, no one understands that he 
drove them over Pike's Peak, Mount Hood, or St. Elias. 

13 



20G 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



So the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat, not on 
that high mountain top. Though we are told that the 
ark rested at the end of the fifth month, vet Noah did 
not venture out until the Lord commanded him to, 
which was the "six hundred and first year, . . . the 
sen md month, on the seven and twentieth day of the 
month," thus remaining in the ark ten days over one year. 

The writings of some of the other nations, especially 
the Babylonians, mention the deluge; and many people, 
scattered in severnl parts of the earth, have traditions 
of a flood. Such traditions are. however, of very little 
value, and it is not wise to place any reliance on them. 
Science has very little, or rather nothing, to say to this 
particular deluge; for this was a sudden affair, the 
land being submerged less than one year. That the con- 
tinents and islands of our earth have been under water, 
or have had several deluges, is admitted by all scient- 
ists, but these, doubtless, extended over very long periods 
of time. It seems to men who have thought little on 
this subject, that the land is stable and fixed, and does 
not rise and fall. Relatively, the different portions of the 
earth maintain their position and altitude, while water is 
the symbol of change — rising and falling, no one knows 
why. This, indeed, appears so, but the facts are the very 
reverse of this. The ocean level changes very slightly, 
except the rise and fall of the tides and the waves of the 
storm. The land is the unstable element. It rises in 
one part of the world and sinks in another; in one part 
sinking below the ocean's waves, in another part rising 
above. This not only true of all past times, but is 
true now. 

Questions have arisen as to how we shall understand 
the language used in the Bible in relation to the flood. 



THE DELUGE. 



207 



Shall we understand that the flood was a universal one, 
extending all over the earth, or was it partial only, em- 
bracing but a limited extent of territory in Western Asia? 
Shall we understand the Bible as teaching the universal 
destruction of life, or the inhabitants and animals of but. 
a small area? The language employed in the Bible is 
certainly universal in form. It reads, "All the high 
hills that were under the whole heavens were covered.", 
As to the destruction of life, it says, "All flesh died that 
moved upon the earth." 

Must we necessarily give to such language its strict 
literal sense ? We think there are many passages in the 
Bible that give us the right to use our judgment in this 
matter. We read that Caesar Augustus commanded "all 
the world" to be taxed. It is evident that only people 
in the Roman Empire were included. In this case, "all 
the world" means but a small part of it. W r e are also 
told there were stranger Jews at Jerusalem, at the Pente- 
costal feast, "out of every nation under heaven." Here,, 
"every nation" includes those as far west as Italy, and 
east as far as Persia — in area about one-fiftieth of the 
earth's surface. It was promised to Nebuchadnezzar,, 
that "wheresoever the children of men dwell, and the 
beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he 
given into thy hand and hath made thee ruler over them 
all." Notwithstanding this universal promise, his rule 
extended over but a small portion of the earth. We 
may conclude that if for any reason it is best to hold 
the flood was but a partial one, we may understand the 
universal language, in this case, as simply a strong way 
of stating the fact of a great deluge. 

The scholars of an earlier day, under a mistaken idea, 
of the fixedness of the land of the globe, supposed the, 



208 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



deluge must have been universal. Tt was held that if 
fche water should rise a mile over one part of the world, 
it must over all. But, as we have already pointed out, 
our scholars have since learned that it is the land that 
sinks instead of the water rising. England and Scotland, 
for instance, were, at one time in the past, sunk beneath 
tiic oeean's level. This is shown by the presence of sea- 
shells far up on 111!- mountains of Wales. We are not 
without evidence that, at a comparatively recent time, a 
targe number of islands, some think an entire continent 
even, have disappeared beneath the waves of the Pacific 
Ocean. 

So we see it is not necessary to suppose the flood was 
a universal one. either from the language in describing 
it, or from any supposed relation between the land and 
the water. And when we commence to study the other 
side of the question, we are struck with some A r ery 
strong, and, in fact, irresistible arguments that the flood 
must have been a local one. The account of the flood 
brings in no miracle; for a miracle, remember, is a 
strange and wonderful occurrence that we can not under- 
stand. But in this case only natural means were used. 
Care was taken to make the ark water-tight — "Thou 
shalt pitch it within and without with pitch." Noah 
was commanded to gather food for himself and animals. 
And it was Noah that was to gather the animals and 
take them into the ark. It is a sound principle never 
to use any interpretation of the language of the Bible 
that requires us to bring in a miracle to support it, 
unless the fact of such a miracle is plainly stated. 

But if we suppose the flood was universal, we must 
support our position by several stupendous miracles. 
First, we must suppose the creation of a vast amount of 



THE DELUGE. 



209 



water to cover the earth to the depth of several miles, 
as it must have been of that depth to cover all the high 
hills; and after the flood this water must have been 
annihilated. Then we must bring in a miracle to 
account for some of the animals reaching the ark. 
Some of the animals of America could not swim the 
ocean, and we do not know there was a land connection. 
Some of these animals are very slow in their movements, 
such as the sloth and the armadillo, of South America. 
We can not understand how they could have reached 
the ark in Western Asia. But the same remarks can 
be made about many other animals. "When the Span- 
iards first penetrated into South America, they did not 
find a single species of quadruped the same as any of 
Europe, Asia, or Africa." 1 

New Zealand had only one mammal (a species of rat) 
and one reptile (a lizard) ; yet its fauna was remarkable 
for its birds, some of which could not fly. Australia 
abounds in kangaroos. How could such animals reach 
the ark? We are confronted with the same difficulty, 
after the subsidence of the flood and the liberation of the 
animals from the ark. Surely it is very strange that 
the wingless birds of New Zealand should have gone 
back to that island and nowhere else, or that American 
species of animals should have been the only ones to 
return to America. How was it that the sloth and 
armadillo returned to the very land where they and 
their kindred dwelt before the flood? These questions 
can only be answered by supposing that God performed 
many miracles; but nothing in the narrative gives us 
any right to make such suppositions. 

The dimensions given of the ark show that it is far 

1 Miller's "Testimony of the Rocks," p. 345. 



210 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



too .small to have furnished protection to all of the spe- 
cies of animals that would have required shelter. For- 
merly it was supposed there were only eighty-nine spe- 
cies of mammals. Sir Walter Raleigh estimated there 
was room in the ark for this number, and for their food. 
Now, it is known there are more than sixteen hundred 
species of mammals, more than six thousand species of 
birds, and more than six hundred species of reptiles. 
Many insects would need to be provided for, and even 
some fishes that could not endure such a deluge of salt 
water. It is safe to say that room would have to be 
made for twenty times as many creatures as Raleigh 
thought could Ih got into such an ark. 

In short, all Christian scholars are willing to admit 
that the objections to the theory of a universal deluge 
are irresistible. The only arguments in its .favor are 
either a misconception of facts, or else pressing the lan- 
guage of the Orient beyond what it will bear. We 
therefore conclude the deluge was a partial one; the 
land where it prevailed sank down; the fountains of the 
great deep were broken up; the waters of the ocean came 
rushing in upon the sunken land, accompanied with 
heavy rain-fall. Noah would think the water was rising, 
and, if he described it at all, would describe it as it 
appeared to him ; for the Bible to speak of the water 
rising, was to do just what we do when we speak of the 
sun as rising. And when it is said every high hill was 
covered, the meaning is, all in sight from the ark were 
covered. It is no violence to the language used to inter- 
pret it in this manner. 

If the deluge were partial only, there are several 
thoughts in connection with it, We need not suppose 
Noah would do more than take the domestic animals 



THE DELUGE. 



211 



and birds into the ark with him. We think no such 
animals as lions, tigers, bears, or anacondas were taken 
into the ark. The men destroyed were the descendants 
of Adam, who lived in that portion of Asia. There is 
no necessity for supposing the Mongolian and black races 
in other parts of the world were destroyed; indeed, we 
must make some such exceptions as this, or else extend 
the date of the flood far back in time. This is necessary 
to account for the growth of language and the formation 
of separate races. In a former chapter we have given 
reasons why some scholars, as friends of the Bible, think 
it not wise to insist that Adam was, strictly speaking, 
the first created man. When we reflect that the flood 
was not a universal one, it seems to us very strange to 
insist that all men were destroyed. All the Adamites 
were, and it is those only of whom the Bible is speaking. 



212 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



(9 HE elEWS. 




WORK on the Bible would bo incomplete 
without some account of the people whose 
history makes up so large 1 a part of both 
Testaments. We refer to the Jews, who are 



also called Hebrews and Israelites. Considerable history 
has been given already, hut we will try and bring it into 
a connected account. Aside from their connection with 
our religion, their history is peculiar and interesting. 
They belong to the great Semitic branch of mankind. 
At the very dawn of history, Semitic nations appear on 
the banks of the Euphrates, the Jordan, and the Nile. 
This family of nations is the first with which ancient 
history deals. All the great nations of antiquity, the 
Chaldean, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Phoenician, were 
Semitic. The Persian was the first nation founded by 
the Aryans. Scholars have divided the Semitic into two 
or more divisions, and under the name of Hamites are 
included, amongst others, the ancient Egyptians and 
Chaldeans. The Assyrians, Hebrews, Arabs, and others, 
form the Semites proper. Biblical statements and mod- 
ern scholarship thus agree in setting forth the close 
relationship between the Hamites and the Semites. 

In the Biblical account of the origin of the Hebrews, 
Abraham is represented as the founder. The account 
begins when Abraham was living with his father and 
brother in Ur of the Chaldeans. Ur, or Hur, was one 
of the capitals of Chaldea. As early as 2300 B. C, it 



THE JEWS. 



215 



was an important place. Early inscriptions speak of the 
ships of Ur, and in connection with those of Ethiopia, 
implying navigation to a considerable distance. The 
location of this ancient town has been quite satisfactorily 
settled. The ruins are now called by the Arabs Mug- 
heir, which means " Bitumenecl," giving it this name 
because the principal ruin is a temple built of very large 
bricks covered with bitumen. "Here on a dead flat, 
broken only by a few sand-hills, are traces of a con- 
siderable town, consisting chiefly of a series of low 
mounds, disposed in an oval shape, the largest diameter 
of which runs from north to south, and measures some- 
what more than half a mile. The chief building is a 
temple, which is a very conspicuous object, even at a 
considerable distance, its greatest height above the plain 
being about seventy feet." 

The present situation of these ruins is about six 
miles from the right bank of the Euphrates, and about 
one hundred and thirty miles from its mouth. We may 
conclude, however, that at the time of Abraham the 
river flowed beside the city, and that its mouth was not 
far distant. During the lapse of years since that time, 
the river has shifted its course and the land has gained 
on the sea. 

Abraham, one of the descendants of Shem, is sup- 
posed to have been born about two thousand years before 
Christ, and to be the ninth generation from Shem. We 
must constantly bear in mind that the history given in 
the Bible before the date of Abraham is so brief that 
we can not be sure of the time elapsing between Shem 
and Abraham, or of the exact number of generations. 
The account in Genesis begins with migration of the 
family or tribe to which Abraham belonged from Ur. 



21G 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



The reasons for this migration are not given. Tains- 
taking historians, however, gather that at about that 
time there was a change of rulers in Chaldea, and great 
internal disturbance. This might have been a migration 
to escape persecution. 

Or we may conjecture that the reason was religious. 
The Chaldeans were great idolaters. At Ur itself was 
located the chief temple of the Moon-god — the town, in 
fact, deriving its name from him. They worshiped other 
gods as well. This migration may have been of a people 
desirous of separating themselves from such idolatrous 
worship. It is necessary to make a short explanation. 
We must remember the Bible was not written to furnish 
us a history or to describe fully the customs and man- 
ners of the people. We must gather these from other 
sources. We are not to suppose this migration was that, 
of a family, in our sense of the word. It was rather that 
of a tribe. We suppose Tcrah was what, at the present 
day, we would call an Emir, among the Arabs, or chief 
of a family or gens. He was regarded as the father of 
all the gens, and really owned all the property. The 
members of a gens are all related to each other, either 
actually or by figure of speech, and they are supposed to 
all be descended from the chief. We think this is an 
explanation of some of the marriages spoken of in the 
Bible. 

It is stated in the Bible that this tribe or gens, under 
the leadership of Terah, left Ur for Canaan, but for some 
reason or other they stopped at Haran, in the plains of 
Mesopotamia. This was a fertile and beautiful place, 
and is still called Haran, and until recently the inhabit- 
ants retained the Chaldean language and worshiped 
Chaldean gods. It is very probable that at this place 



THE JEWS. 



217 



the band was first called "Ebers," meaning "beyond the 
river," and by river is meant the Euphrates, and from 
thence we derive the word Hebrews. They remained in 
Haran until after Terah's death. Then, at the com- 
mand of the Lord, Abraham continued the journey to 
Canaan. 

From the Biblical account we conclude that Abraham 
separated himself from the majority of his father's tribe. 
Not entirely so, because he took with him his nephew 
Lot and "all the souls they had gotten in Haran." A 
simple explanation is at hand. The tribe had prospered 
and multiplied in Haran. They began to need more 
room. We may further conclude that Abraham pos- 
sessed those qualities that made it possible for God to 
bless him, and therefore he separated him from his 
father's house. How many went with him we do not 
know for a certainty. A few years later Abraham armed 
three hundred and eighteen young men out of his own 
band, for a military undertaking. This would imply a 
company of somewhere near two thousand people. How 
the commandment of God was revealed to Abraham we 
are not told; it may have been by vision in a dream, or 
it might have been simply a strong impression that it 
was for the best, 

Leaving Haran, Abraham and his followers removed 
to Canaan and settled first near Shechem. Their wealth 
was in their flocks. They doubtless moved about as 
that class of men are wont to. They dwelt in tents, had 
no literature, and knew nothing of writing. The Bible 
says: "And the Canaanite was then in the land." These 
people spoke dialects of the same language that the 
Hebrews did, so they probably had no difficulty in con- 
versing with them. The next incident mentioned is a 



218 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



famine in the land, and this wandering band went into 
Egypt. The pyramids were probably standing at that 
time, but no mention is made of them. An incident is 
mentioned in regard to this journey to Egypt, which 
illustrates a custom still followed in some parts of the 
East. A chief may take for his wife a daughter or sister 
of any of his subjects, but not a wife. Abraham was 
afraid it' Sarah were known to be his wife, and, there- 
fore, could not be taken by Pharaoh, that he would be 
killed. He therefore instructed her to say that she was 
his sister, and not his wife. The ruse was successful. 
Presents were heaped upon Abraham, and Sarah was 
taken into the king's household; but the deceit was soon 
discovered, and Abraham and Sarah, though treated 
well, were rather unceremoniously dismissed. 

His stay in I\gypt was probably very brief, and then 
he returned to Canaan. We are told that Abraham was 
very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. They had 
prospered, but their numbers had so increased that a 
division was deemed advisable. So Lot separated from 
them, and settled in the valley of Jordan. 

Very scant historical details are given in the Bible. 
For two hundred years from this point the history of 
the Jews is simply a history of individuals. We have 
not the means wherewith to supplement the accounts 
given us in the pages of Holy Writ. It needs, however, 
no great research to understand the condition of Pales- 
tine at this time. It was the home of numerous inde- 
pendent tribes. The kings so plentifully spoken of 1 
were the chiefs of those tribes. They were not all 
nomadic, as Abraham seems to have been. Those inhab- 
iting the most fertile portions of Palestine had made 

1 Genesis xiv. 



THE JEWS. 



219 



themselves regularly fortified cities, or encampments. 
The tribes had much in common. They probably spoke 
dialects of the same stock language. They sometimes 
confederated together for the common good. They prob- 
ably had much in common in their religion. Melchize- 
dek, king or chief of the tribe who dwelt at Salem, is 
spoken of as the priest of the most high God. 

But we also see that even at that early day the 
Hebrews were clannish. Abraham would not permit 
Isaac to marry with any of the Canaanite tribes, but 
sent rather to Haran for his father's descendants for a 
wife. Their religious rites tended to this end also. The 
rite of circumcision was adopted as a token of the cove- 
nant between God and Abraham. It is quite true that 
other and widely scattered nations have made use of this 
custom, but in none were there such religious privileges 
attached to it, or such strict regulations for enforcing it. 

Time sped on with this Hebrew tribe. In their old 
age a son was born to Abraham and Sarah. This was 
the son promised by God. There are some reasons for 
thinking that, even before Sarah's death, Abraham was 
married to Keturah, and had children by her. We must 
remember that, in the stage of culture in which these 
people were, the marriage relation was regarded in a 
different light from what it is among us. It certainly is 
somewhat strange that the Bible should say so much 
implying that the birth of Isaac was a singular event, 
considering that Abraham had reached a hundred years 
of age, if some forty years later he married and became 
the father of several children. But be that as it may, 
Isaac succeeded his father as the head of the tribe. 

Not much is told of the events of Isaac's life. We 
may suppose that matters moved along prosperously 



220 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



with him. He had two sons. Doubtless all arc familiar 
with the Biblical story of how the older, Esau, sold his 
birthright to the younger, Jacob; and also the deceit that 
Jacob practiced upon his father Isaac to secure the bless- 
ing that was intended for Esau, and. in consequence of 
this act, his flight to his father's kindred in llaran. 
From this point we lose sight of the primitive tribe thai 
came up with Abraham. We presume Esau succeeded 

to the head of it. He, to the grief of his father and 
mother, intermarried with one of the neighboring tribes. 
His descendants are mentioned, and some years later 
Esau again comes before us, evidently a rich a»d power- 
ful chieftain. But it was Left for Jacob to be the founder 
of a new family, which developed into the Hebrew 
nation. 

Jacob fled from before his brother Esau to llaran, 
and dwelt with his uncle, Laban. This country, we 
remember, was the starting point of Abraham on his 
wandering; and here we start anew in the history of the 
Hebrews. Jacob married two of his cousins. He is sup- 
posed to have stayed there twenty or twenty-five years. 
During this time there were born to him eleven sons, 
and subsequently, after leaving llaran, a twelfth one was 
born. He prospered and became rich, and finally set 
forth to return to Canaan, but now at the head of a con- 
siderable company and with great flocks. 

Doubtless all are familiar with the story of Joseph's 
life — how he Avas sold into slavery; how, assisted by 
God, he rose to pow T er in Egypt, and was the means of 
saving not only the people of Egypt, but his father's 
family, during a long famine. The events leading to the 
migration to Egypt of Jacob and his family are so well 
known that it is not necessary to repeat them. How 



THE JEWS. 



221 



many went down is a question of some interest. The 
Bible states that all of Jacob's immediate descendants 
that came with him into Egypt were sixty-six ; or, count- 
ing Jacob, Joseph, and his two sons, we are told that all 
the souls of the house of Jacob which came into Egypt 
were seventy. This number is, however, misleading. 
We quickly perceive that it includes only Jacob and his 
immediate descendants, and only the males among them. 
Jacob had at least one daughter and one granddaughter, 
who went with them to Egypt, who are not counted. 
The probabilities are there were a number other daugh- 
ters and granddaughters. None of the wives are men- 
tioned, which would doubtless swell the list considerably. 
Finally, we have to consider that in all probability a 
great many more people came with Jacob into Egypt. 
He was at the head of a tribe, and doubtless they fol- 
lowed him. 

Joseph being next in power to Pharaoh, in Egypt, 
this band of Hebrews, few or many, were kindly received 
for his sake, and assigned territory in Goshen. Now, an 
unknown, or, at any rate, an indefinite series of years 
pass by. We have no means of learning the events that 
happen therein. We know that during this time the 
Hebrews were greatly prospered. The twelve sons of 
Jacob became each the head of a tribe. According to 
the usually accepted chronology, the period of time they 
remained in Egypt was from B. C. 1706 to B. C. 1491, 
or two hundred and fifteen years ; but in Exodus we are 
told that the sojourning of the children of Israel in 
Egypt was exactly four hundred and thirty years. 1 Paul 
appears to teach that this period of four hundred and 
thirty years was the time that elapsed from the giving 

1 Exodus xii, 40,41. 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



of the promise to Abraham 1 to the giving of the law to 
Moses; 2 but this does not settle matters, since our chro- 
nology would make that length of time only three hun- 
dred and eighty-two or three years. The probability is 
thai our ehronologv is at fault. There are not enough 
data given in the Bible to determine the date of all of 
even the most important events. 

We need not repeat what we have said about Moses 
and the wonderful series of events that preceded the 
return of the Hebrews from Egypt. It is only necessary 
to say thai the Egyptians had no love for the Hebrews, 
oven in the time of Joseph. It was an abomination for 
them lo cat with Hebrews. We may be quite sure the 
Hebrews would hold themselves aloof from the Egyp- 
tians, I'm- they have always so conducted themselves. It 
is, therefore, not strange that, as time passed on, and 
Joseph was forgotten, the Egyptians would commence to 
domineer over the Hebrews. No doubt the latter would 
have left Egypt had they been free to do so, but the 
Egyptians learned the value of their services, and, accord- 
ingly, held them in a species of slavery, which, finally, 
became very severe. The time of deliverance at length 
drew near. Moses was raised up to be their leader, and 
a series of wonderful events made the Egyptians willing 
for them to take their departure. 

The time of this departure is usually stated by Bibli- 
cal scholars as B. C. 1491. The people who went with 
Jacob to Egypt were but a small band, perhaps only 
few in number. There went up out of Egypt, under the 
leadership of Moses, a mighty host. We are not given 
the exact figures, but we are told there were about six 
hundred thousand men, besides children. The word man 

Genesis xxii, 17 Galatians iii, 15-18. 



THE JEWS. 



t 

223 



may mean women also, for we know this word is often 
equivalent to " a human being," one of the human race. 
This would indicate a population of nearly one million. 
The Jewish nation is now fairly started. Heretofore we 
have been dealing with but a small tribe. Now, we have 
a nation that numbers six hundred thousand men, besides 
children. They were divided into twelve tribes, besides 
the children of Levi, who were not counted as a tribe, 
though they were not absorbed into the other tribes. 
The two sons of Joseph were each the head of a tribe 
named after himself. 

We need not stop to describe or recount the numer- 
ous incidents of their wanderings in the desert. But, at 
length, they were once more on the confines of the 
Promised Land. There their ancestral tribe had wan- 
dered to and fro. God had promised it as a possession 
to Abraham. He had promised him that his seed should 
be like the sand for multitude. A long lapse of time 
had rolled by since then; but now, behold! A nation, 
descendants of Abraham, with nocks and herds, had 
come up from Egypt to possess themselves of their inher- 
itance. We possess evidence enough that the tribal feel- 
ing was strongly developed among the Jews. A man 
was not a Hebrew, but of the tribe of Juclah, or Ephraim, 
or Benjamin. There was scarcely any national feeling. 
This was unfavorable to any national defense, or even 
conquest. It created local jealousies and antipathies, 
and prevented that action in concert so indispensable to 
national strength. 

But there were several advantageous circumstances 
in favor of Hebrews. Closely related tribes naturally 
confederate together to accomplish some desired end, or 
to save themselves when some great danger confronts 

14 



224 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



them, Moses was the leader appointed, or raised up, by 
God to deliver them out of Egypt. All the tribes recog- 
nized his authority. They had been held together dur- 
ing a long sojourn in the desert, and, what was very 
important, laws, both civil and religious, had been pro- 
mulgated by Moses binding on all. The effect* was to 
cement these tribes into a closer relationship than that 
of mere tribal organization. We must not forget, either, 
that Palestine was inhabited by local tribes who had but 
little in common. They were lacking in the training the 
Hebrews had received. They did not at iirst realize the 
necessity of uniting under the leadership of one tribe to 
repel the attacks of the Hebrews. This, of course, was 
greatly in favor of the latter. 

It seems wise to briefly describe the Holy Land. 
For this purpose we introduce a map. It is strange 
from what a small area influences go out that affect the 
whole earth. Ancient Greece, the mother of philosophy 
and art. in territorial extent, was only about half as 
large as the state of Ohio. Rome, which conquered the 
world, was but a city in Italy. The territory shown in 
this map is the section of country where the twelve 
tribes of Israel settled. It is, as may be seen, a narrow 
stretch of country on the west coast of Asia. To the 
west is the Mediterranean; to the north, Syria; east is 
the Syrian desert, separating it from Asia proper; to the 
south is the desert of Arabia Petra; south-west, across 
a desert, is the narrow isthmus of Suez, connecting Asia 
and Africa. It will be seen it lies in the direct track 
between Asia and Africa. Its points of attack, when 
danger threatened, were from Egypt or from Syria. 

We observe that this narrow stretch of country, only 
one hundred and forty miles long, is divided into two 



THE JEWS. 



227 



parts by the Jordan, the only real river of the country. 
In Old Testament times, the part east of Jordan was 
called the Land of Gilead, and formed really no part of 
the Promised Land. The portion west of the Jordan 
was called Canaan. Palestine, by which it is often called 
now, is derived from Philistia, the land of the Philis- 
tines; and is the name of the fertile coast plain along 
the south-western part. Including the part east of 
Jordan, the area is about twelve thousand square miles, 
about as large as Massachusetts and Connecticut to- 
gether. The tribes that settled in Gilead played such 
an unimportant part in Jewish history that, for the 
present, we will not consider their country. The part 
west of Jordan, Canaan, or the Promised Land proper, 
is intermediate in size between Connecticut and New 
Jersey. 

It possesses some peculiar features. Along the coast 
of the Mediterranean Sea there is a narrow and fertile 
plain. The lower portion, Philistia, has always been 
renowned for its fertility. North of this is the plain of 
Sharon. This stretch of level coast land varies in width 
from a few miles to fifteen or twenty. In the vicinity 
of Mount Carmel the plain disappears, and the central 
hills reach out in a bold promontory to the sea. In 
general, a few miles from the coast the hill country 
commences. This section extends to near the river 
Jordan, so that five-sixths of the Promised Land is 
essentially a mountainous country. There are not im- 
posing mountain ranges extending throughout the land, 
but, from both the Jordan and the low land along the 
coast, the country rises quite abruptly to the height of 
eighteen hundred or two thousand feet. This elevated 
region is not a plateau. It is broken up with a sea of 



228 



THE B1I5LE COMPANION. 



hills, without much order, but here and there forming 
ranges with narrow intervening valleys. , 

The river Jordan, which forms the eastern border of 
Canaan, is a remarkable river, and in the course of ages 
it lias worn out a remarkable valley. It takes its rise 
in the northern part, near Mount Hermon. Here it has 
an elevation of about seventeen hundred feet above the 
sea. It flows nearly directly south, in a zigzag course, 
however, for about one hundred and fifty miles, where it 
loses itself in the Dead Sea. The surface of this sheet 
of water is thirteen hundred feet below the sea level. So 
in its course the river falls some three thousand feet. 
We arc therefore, not surprised to learn that "its course 
is one continued cataract," or that it is so broken with 
rapids that no boat can swim in it for more than half a 
mile. 

The river expands into two lakes before it reaches 
its goal, the Dead Sea. Lake Merom, the upper one, 
has an area of but ten miles. The valley of the Jordan, 
from its course to this lake, is about five miles across. 
Leaving Merom, the river flows in a deep and narrow 
glen to the Sea of Galilee, called also Lake Tiberias and 
Lake Gennesaret. This is a more pretentious body of 
water, having an area of about one hundred and fifty 
square miles. Between Lake Galilee and the Dead Sea 
the valley is, in its upper portion, some seven miles 
wide. The mountains of Canaan slope abruptly to this 
valley. From north of Jericho they bear away from the 
river, so as to leave the valley about twelve miles wide. 

We all know the natural features of a country greatly 
influence the people living therein. JSTow the bulk of 
the Jewish tribes settled in the hill country of Canaan, 
between the valley of Jordan and the low lands along the 



THE JEWS. 



229 



coast. Let us examine this portion more particularly. 
Commencing at the south, there is a gradual transition 
from the desert to the bluffy hill country. South of 
Hebron, the land, in Bible times, was known as Negeb, 
or the South Country. At present, during the larger 
part of the year, this is a dreary country. As we pass 
north from Hebron there is somewhat more of fertility, 
but the landscape is monotonous, bare, and uninviting. 
Rounded hills, chiefly of a dirty gray color, their sides 
formed into concentric rings of rock, still showing traces 
of terraces which they once supported, are to be seen on 
all sides. Where the slopes of these hills come together, 
there is a sinuous valley, or rather the bed of a dry 
water course, covered with long stretches of rock. We 
must understand the hills are destitute of timber, or 
nearly so. This is the prevailing feature of a large part 
of Central and Southern Canaan. 

The evidence is, however, that in ancient times this 
country supported a considerable population. The pres- 
ence of old ruins are numerous. Terraces were built on 
the hill sides, so as to give more ground for cultivation. 
All that is wanted at the present day to make the soil 
very fertile is water. There is abundant evidence that, 
at a former day, irrigation was extensively practiced. 
Passing northward, from Judea, the country assumes a 
better aspect. The hills, though still bare of wood, lose 
the arid, worn look of those in Judea, The valleys 
between the hills become longer, and are more fertile. 
Water is more abundant, The whole of Samaria is well 
adapted for vineyards, orchards, and olive culture; and 
the uplands, when cultivated, will produce good crops of 
grain. The valley of Esdraelon on the north, extending 
from the sea well toward Jordan, is renowned for its 



■2:M) 



THE niP.LK COMPANION'. 



fertility, and was the great battle-field of ancient times. 
Passing into Galilee, we reach the finest portion of 
Canaan. "Fountains are abundant and copious, and 
many of the torrent beds are never dry. The hills be- 
come more and more richly wooded." In location, 
Palestine is about as far south as our Gulf States. Dur- 
ing the greater part of the year it is very warm. The 
summer is the dry season. The first rains fall about 
the beginning of November, the latter rains about the 
first of April. On the higher hills, and about Jerusalem, 
allow occasionally falls, but seldom remains long on the 
ground. 

Such is a general outline of the country that had 
been promised to the children of Israel. Moses had 
conducted them to the east bank of the Jordan. Terri- 
tory had been assigned to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, 
and half the tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, 
but their men of war were to go forward with the rest 
of the children of Israel to fight the Canaanites. Moses 
died, and was succeeded in leadership by Joshua; and 
under him the Hebrews crossed the Jordan and entered 
Canaan, the promised land. It is not necessary to 
repeat the story of the conquest, but some observations 
are not out of place. 

This conquest was a different thing from what we 
usually understand by the word conquest ; in fact, for 
several hundred years it was but a partial conquest only. 
In ancient times conquests were sometimes undertaken 
by a settled people, who desired to reduce other tribes 
to tribute. But the Hebrews consisted of a confederacy 
of tribes, emigrating in search of homes ; it was not trib- 
ute they wanted, but territory. It requires careful read- 
ing to determine the condition of the Jews for three or 



THE JEWS. 



231 



four hundred years after the conquest of Canaan — that 
is, during the period covered by the book of Judges. 
When we read the account given in Joshua, we naturally 
think the conquest must have been quite thorough. But 
the opening chapter of Judges affords us a truer insight. 
]\ T ot one of the tribes succeeded in driving out all of the 
original inhabitants from their allotted portions, and in 
many cases it seems the Hebrews had to content them- 
selves with the hills, and leave the original inhabitants 
in possession of the valleys. The fertile plain of Phiiis- 
tia was not conquered before David's time, and then not 
thoroughly so. The district was regarded as one inde- 
pendent of and apart from Israel. Of Judah it is said : 
"He drove out the inhabitants of the mountains, but 
could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley." The 
site of Jerusalem remained in possession of the Jebusites 
until the time of King David. It would seem from the 
statements in regard to the conquest of Manasseh that 
nearly all of the fertile plain of Esdraelon remained in 
the hands of the Canaanites. Of the tribe of Dan we 
read that the Amorites forced them into the mountains, 
and would not let them come down into the valley. • 

We conclude that, as long as Joshua was alive to hold 
the tribes together, they were more than a match for the 
Canaanites. After his death the tribal feeling became 
more pronounced. Each tribe began to look out for its 
own interest. Judah and Simeon united their forces to 
conquer their allotted portions. But we conclude that 
each of the other tribes set out by itself, and, as we have 
seen, they were only in a measure successful. The 
account generally states that as the tribes increased in 
strength they put the original tribes under tribute. We 
may reasonably suppose this was not for many years. 



232 



THE BIRLE COMPANION 1 . 



The simple fact is, the Hebrews dwelt among tlie various 
tribes, as stated in Judges. 1 We may well imagine that 
the truce existing between them was of a very fragile 
kind. Tlu-ir encampments (by courtesy called cities) 
would be located in strong, easily defended localities — in 
just such places where ruins are to be found to-day. 

We must not forget, either, that there was still much 
in common between the Hebrews and the native tribes. 
Their languages were from the same stock, and they 
could probably converse with each other. They could 
not fail to recognize the race connection existing between 
them. It is not at all strange, humanly speaking, that 
they were inclined to affiliate with them, to intermarry 
with them, and even to embrace their religion. These 
results had been brought about before they had been 
forty years in the Promised Land. 2 The Bible tells us 
that this was very displeasing to (bid, and that the 
Hebrews underwent many grievous punishments in con- 
sequence of their sins in this matter. And yet we think 
this custom of intermarrying went forward during the 
long course of time covered by the book of Judges, and 
that in this manner, as much as by exterminating war, 
is accounted the disappearance of many of the former 
tribes of Canaan. This remark will not, however, apply 
to the Philistines of the coast. 

The Hebrews were a pastoral people. Their wealth 
was in their flocks and herds. They were a tribal people. 
After the death of Joshua, as Ave have already remarked, 
they turned more strongly to this form of government. 
Each tribe was independent in its own relations. The 
bond which held them together and exercised some 
restraint over them was religion. God had imparted to 

■111,5. 2 Judges iii, 6, 7. 



THE JEWS. 



233 



Moses a code of laws eminently suited to their condition 
of life, and far in advance of any code known to be in 
existence at that early time. But even this bond was 
weak. As the remarkable events of the journey through 
the wilderness, and the early days of the conquest, 
receded in time, the people rapidly forgot them. We 
must not, however, be too hasty in our judgment. The 
tribes, of necessity, scattered to the territory assigned 
them. There was no capital city where the prominent 
men met in council. There was no literature of any 
kind. Probably but a few copies of the law were in 
existence. The priests only were learned in this law. 
It was only some common danger that would bring the 
tribes together, and then only their men of war. It is 
not singular that these scattered, tribes, living among 
bands of idolaters, with no very good way yet deter- 
mined of imparting instruction among the common 
people, should forget or hold in light esteem the laws of 
their forefathers. 

But in seasons of common distress, or when one or 
more of the tribes were threatened with calamity, they 
would remember their common origin, and would unite 
under a common leader for a common cause. These 
leaders the Bible calls judges. The occasions that 
brought them forward, and the nature of the services 
they rendered, are described. 1 We are given a short 
account of thirteen of these judges. But there is no rea- 
son to suppose all the judges are named; neither are we 
to suppose one judge followed right after the other. 
Only in seasons of emergency would one be raised up. 
The danger passed, he exercised a show of authority 
over the various tribes. This authority was wholly per- 

1 Judges ii, 16-20. 



234 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



sonal. It was binding on the tribes only ;is they volun- 
tarily submitted to it. We have very meager accounts 
of the transactions of this period, which embraces from 
three to four hundred years. The national feeling seems 
to have slowly developed, as the monarchy was estab- 
lished during the life-time of Samuel, the last judge. 

We have now reached the third stage of the history 
of the Hebrews, the establishment of the monarchy. 
The people felt the need of a strong centralized govern- 
ment, one that would unite all the tribes, and free the 
land of the numerous bands of the Canaanitic tribes 
that had thus far about held their own with the Hebrews; 
but, manifestly, this state of things could not continue. 
A high degree of culture can not be expected in a coun- 
try where the inhabitants must be continually on their 
guard to repel invasion. Accordingly, Saul was chosen 
to be their king. The remarkable statement is made 
that Samuel wrote the manner of the kingdom in a book. 1 
Some have supposed this to be the constitution of the 
kingdom. We would sooner think it was a chronicle of 
the events. An army was organized, and Gibeah, the 
home of Saul, about ten miles south-west of Jerusalem, 
was made the capital of the kingdom. Unfortunately, 
we know but little about the details of his govern- 
ment. It is not probable that any great change took 
place in the administration of justice, or the private life 
of the people. But the king had a strong body-guard 
and a standing army, and was in condition to enforce his 
demands. 

Saul evidently possessed considerable military ability, 
but no stability of character. He built up a national 
feeling, and inspired a national hope, but w T as not able 

x l Samuel x, 25. 



THE JEWS. 



235 



to complete the work. He was followed by David, a 
very different character. David was Hot fl GG ifl"01Tl 1G\ 
ous faults, and the Bible does not gloss them over. In 
judging him, we must not forget the times in which he 
lived, the people over whom he was king. Moses showed 
great ability as a leader, and, according to Josephus, he 
was a successful general before the exodus. David must 
have possessed great executive ability, if anything, supe- 
rior to Moses. For seven years, after the death of Saul, 
there was civil war over the succession to the throne. 
David had been anointed by Samuel as king of Israel. 
His home tribe, Judah, had accepted him as such. 
Abner, the captain of the host — that is, commanding gen- 
eral under Saul — proclaimed as king one of Saul's sons, 
Ishbosheth, who was accepted by the other tribes. 
Bloody conflicts stained this double reign. David kept 
steadily gaining, until at length assassination, which 
was caused by private revenge, gave to David the whole 
kingdom. 

The abilities of David now became apparent. He ex- 
pelled the Jebusites from Jerusalem, fortified the place, 
and made it his capital. He reorganized the national 
worship and the civil government. He possessed great 
military ability, and, in this matter, was ably seconded 
by Joab, the general of his forces. In the short space of 
ten years he carried the Hebrew nation to its zenith of 
power. He completely subjugated the various Canaan- 
itic people, and conquered Philistia as well. He turned 
his arms to the north-east, and Syria became a province 
of his empire. His power was recognized from Suez 
to the river Euphrates. He had the daring to attempt 
great deeds, and the strength to accomplish them. Dur- 
ing his reign, in general, justice was strictly adminis- 



2W 



Til V. I5IBLK COMPANION. 



tered, and wo may well suppose his people took a long 
step forward in culture. 

Literature and art, represented by poetry and music, 
flourished. David himself wrote in the sublimest strains 
of Hebrew poetry. His conquests, his power and splen- 
dor, are gone, but he still lives, and will forever be cher- 
ished by ns as "the sweet singer of Israel." Many of 
tin' psalms he composed arc preserved for us in the book 
of Psalms, and to-day they comfort the hearts of God's 
people. In them we catch a glimpse of David's char- 
acter; they breathe out a spirit of deep religious convic- 
tion, and express a strong coniidence in God. The king- 
was nut the only poet of his time. Asaph founded a 
family of sacred singers, and rivaled the king in the 
writing of psalms. There is a dark side to this sketch 

well. David himself had much to repent of. The 
palace of the king was often stained with crime. The 
infamous deeds of his sons Amnon, Absalom, and Adon- 
ijah, distracted the peace of his house and kingdom. 

One writer sums up his remarks on David as fol- 
lows: "Why is David remembered and loved by men 
of every age, race, and language? Not because of the 
might of his conquering arm; not because of the splendor 
of his kingly crown ; but because he had a great, living', 
sympathetic soul, a truly royal heart; everywhere he 
touches other human lives, for he combines in his own all 
their strengths and weaknesses, their joys and their sor- 
rows, their hopes and their fears, their successes and their 
failures. When he sins he suffers, and abases himself 
before his God ; he knows his sin, and he submits to the 
penalty. When he is glad he rejoices; when he is angry 
his tongue utters it; when he is in the presence of God 
he is tilled with awe; and everywhere he pours out his 



THE JEWS. 



237 



soul in songs which thrill our hearts with their sublimity, 
their penitence, their sorrow, their gladness, their divine 
hope and confidence. So wonderful are they for their 
truth and beauty, that now, after a lapse of three thou- 
sand years, we look in vain to find their equals." 

David reigned forty years, and was succeeded by his 
son Solomon. When this king ascended the throne the 
condition of affairs was very different from what they 
were when David commenced his reign. The nation 
was united and prospering. The surrounding nations 
respected its military power. In fact, David securely 
laid the foundation on which rests the glory of Solomon's 
reign. The splendid temple which he built was built by 
means of the great treasure David had gathered for this 
purpose. Solomon was endowed by Grod with great wisdoi a ; 
but he Avas not an executive military man, like his father. 
He spent nothing, or very little, in strengthening the 
military power of his kingdom. We have no record 
of conquests made. He materially advanced his nation 
in other respects, however. He originated a foreign pol- 
icy. Pie formed an alliance, by marriage, with Egypt, 
and made a treaty with Hiram, a Phoenician king, 
reigning at Tyre. He encouraged commerce. Joppa, on 
the Mediterranean, became a thriving seaport. There 
the Phoenician merchants gave in exchange for the wine 
and oil of the land the various articles of use or enjoy- 
ment gathered at the many ports of the Mediterranean. 
But Solomon did still more to encourage foreign trade. 
He opened ports on the Gulf of Akaba. His harbors 
were about ten miles above the present end of the gulf. 
The Phoenicians made him ships, which sailed from these 
ports for India and the East. Not content with this, he 
organized caravans to trade with the nations on the 



Till: MULE COMPANION. 



Euphrates. For the benefit of these caravans, he built 
or enlarged Tadmor, situated on an oasis in the Syrian 
Desert. This was afterwards known as Palmyra, the 
home of Queen Zenobia. 

This activity in trade and commercial pursuits could 
not fail to bring a great deal of wealth into Canaan. 
But riches are not an unmixed good. Solomon's reign 
degenerated from a government designed to benefit the 
wh 1;> people to an Oriental despotism, in which the 
pleasures of the ruler only are to be considered. His 
fame for wisdom was. indeed, carried far and wide, and 
foreign rulers came to visit him. But his reign exhibits 
little of the statesman. It was disastrous in its results. 
.Iim1>. the valiant captain, had been put to death, and no 
general had arisen to take his place. The conquered 
provinces were slipping away from their allegiance. The 
profligacy of the court led to the imposition of heavy 
ns <ni the people, which latter bore bitter fruits. 
Like other Oriental despots, he spent vast sums on his 
harem, and beautified and adorned his capital at the 
expense of his kingdom. But worse and more far-reach- 
ing in its consequences than all this was the idolatry to 
which he gave himself up. David had warned him of 
this, and informed him of the conditions on which his 
posterity should continue to sit on the throne. 1 But con- 
tact with foreign people, and a desire to please his foreign 
wives, led him to introduce the worship of their gods. 

The Biblical account is very brief. He served Ash- 
toreth, the Phoenician queen of the heaven. He built 
"high places" for Ohemosh, the national god of the 
Moabites, and worshiped Moloch, which worship, among 
the Amorites at least, was attended with human sacrifices. 

1 1 Kings ii, 24. 



THE JEWS. 



239 



In addition still, he burned incense, and sacrificed unto 
all the gods of his strange wives. 1 The example of the 
court would, of course, be followed by the people, and 
thus the Hebrews were led to forget the God of Abra- 
ham. On what rests the fame of Solomon? "A thou- 
sand wild and incredible fancies about the wise king 
possessed the minds of men in his own day, and they 
still exist all over the East. He never drew a sword 
nor led an army, 2 but no conqueror — not Alexander, nor 
Csesar, nor Tamerlane — enjoyed a wider fame in his own 
day; none enjoy a wider one in ours." He was endowed 
with great intellectual gifts, but not strength of charac- 
ter. He was a philosopher and a poet. He reaped the 
benefits, enjoyed the fruits, of David's reign, but could 
not stand prosperity. The downfall of the Hebrew na- 
tion dates from the reign of Solomon. 

We may as well examine the social life of the He- 
brews in this place. The country was not dotted with 
houses, the abodes of single families. Villages, or, as 
they represent them, cities, were the rule. We must 
understand by them, fortified places, sufficiently numer- 
ous that the inhabitants could go out in the day-time and 
work their land, returning at night for the protection 
afforded by the city, which was generally walled in. 
The place of transaction of business was at the gates of 
the city, which we know opened on the square or market 
place. Built into the gate, or over it, were rooms where 
the judges and elders met for deliberation. When David 
heard the news of Absalom's death he went up to the 
chamber over the gate to weep. The houses of the 
people were of a very simple character. They were 

1 Kings xi, 1-9. 'Perhaps this is too strong a statement. (2 Chronicles 
viii, 3.) 



240 



Tin: nir.LE com pan ion. 



built of stone, or brick, or mud. The roofs were flat, 
and were often used as sleeping places, as well as places 
for social meeting. 

Both men and women wore long garments, made 
generally of wool. The dress was very simple, consist- 
ing of the tunic and the mantle; the only ornaments 
were fringes or borderings, sometimes clasps of gold, or 
even precious stones. The head Avas covered by a tur- 
ban, and it was a sign of mourning to leave it uncovered. 
The only covering for the feet was sandals, and cleanli- 
ness demanded washing the feet daily. A couch or flat 
cushion formed their bed, and on this they reclined when 
eating. Their food was very simple, and largely vege- 
table. We can not learn that there were any religious 
exercises on occasions of cither marriage or death. In 
the first case there were feastings, enlivened with music 
and rejoicing. Processions were formed, in which myr- 
tle and palm branches were carried, accompanied by 
music. In case of death, the body was not burned, but 
buried in a rock-hollowed tomb. Sometimes it was 
embalmed. Perfumes were burned over the tomb, and 
songs and dirges sung. The relatives expressed mourn- 
ing in several ways, such as tearing the clothes, beating 
the breast, shaving the beard, baring the feet and head, 
but keeping the face covered. The period of mourning 
was seven days, sometimes extended over a whole month. 

Literature was confined to the priests and prophets. 
They only attempted to compose books, or to write the 
histories of their times. Their style is manifested in the 
books we have. They make neither preface nor apology, 
but tell their story simply and plainly. Some portions 
of their poetry have not been surpassed. They were not 
given to scientific researches. They were not, like the 



THE JEWS. 



241 



Chaldeans, famed for their knowledge of astronomy. 
They were not skilled artisans. In the early clays of 
Saul, it is said, there were no smiths in the land. There 
were no schools or systematic methods of training the 
children. We are told that Samuel organized schools 
for prophets; they were probably places of instruction 
for such as were to be priests. The instruction given 
was probably in the books of the law and in music, for a 
part of their duty was to sing the sacred songs of Israel. 

The feasts were, the Sabbath ; the first day of the 
month, called the New Moon; the three great feasts of the 
Passover, the Pentecost, and the Tabernacle. These 
came in the months corresponding to April, May, and 
October, respectively. We know but little how- they kept 
the Sabbath. There were no synagogues or churches 
established where they received instruction. In the 
time of Moses, the Sabbaths were observed with very 
great strictness, but beyond a doubt their customs in this 
respect changed. The first day of the month was 
observed much the same as the Sabbath. It is some- 
what singular that we have no record of a Passover being 
kept from the time of Joshua until the time of Josiah, a 
period of over eight hundred years. It is, however, 
generally supposed that it was kept. It is generally 
stated that all the men were obliged to be present at 
Jerusalem at the three great feasts, and that the women 
were permitted to come. It is manifest that this state- 
ment must be taken with a great deal of allowance. To 
suppose that all, or even the majority, of the Hebrews, 
from Dan to Beersheba, and from beyond Jordan, gath- 
ered in one place three times a year, is unreasonable. 
And, indeed, before the days of David, it would not 
have been safe for them to have done so. 

15 



242 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



The laws of Moses contain a number of provisions in 
regard to every seventh year, and the fiftieth year. We 
do nol know how long these provisions were observed. 
Every seventh year the land was not to be worked. 
The poor wore to be released from their debts. Bond- 
men were to be given their liberty. Every fiftieth year 
was to be a year of jubilee. The land was to be left 
uncultivated. If poverty had compelled the owner of a 
piece of land to part with it, it was, with a few excep- 
tions, to Ik' restored to its original owner this year. 
Slaves wore to be freed. 

The religion of the Hebrews rested on the laws of 
Moses, ;ind we may assume the priests and Lcvites made 
an effort to have this law observed, and we may assume, 
further, that the official religion of the Hebrew's (if we 
may use this expression) was always based on these 
laws. But we can not shut our eyes to certain facts. 
Before the tribes had been in their allotted territory 
forty years, they had intermarried to some extent with 
the heathen tribes around them, and had taken up with 
their idolatrous notions. Their conduct in this respect 
is severely denounced in the Bible. This is true of the 
whole extended period of time covered by the book of 
Judges. At different intervals, during this time, they 
were subject to these tribes. During the reign of Saul 
and David, we have no reason to suppose the idolatry 
thus introduced was broken up. Solomon encouraged it 
by his example. 

We are also to reflect that the masses of the people 
were ignorant. There was no literature circulating 
among them. Their civilization was that of the early 
Iron Age. If we want further proof of the debased con- 
dition of the body of the people, we have only to study 



THE JEWS. 



243 



the laws of Moses. We must remember that Moses was 
assisted in forming these laws by God, and that they 
were the best possible for a people in their condition. 
But how much in them reveals that they were drawn 
for a rudely civilized, ignorant, barbaric people! Now, 
bearing all this in mind, we must admit that in all 
likelihood the real religious life of the people, the observ- 
ance of the feasts, and the institutions of Moses, had 
become greatly changed in the course of a few genera- 
tions from the exodus. 

It is necessary to briefly describe the somewhat 
singular position held by the tribe of Levi. Both Moses 
and Aaron were members of this tribe — the one, the 
great lawgiver; the other, the priest. The rites and 
ceremonies of the Jewish religion were numerous. The 
ritual was elaborate, and demanded for the proper per- 
formance of the same a specially prepared and trained 
body of men, with a high priest at their head. So the 
priestly office was confined to the family of Aaron. But 
this office was taken up with the performance of ritual 
duties. To explain the law to the mass of the people, 
and to assist the priests in fulfilling their duties, still 
other men skilled in understanding the law were re- 
quired. For this purpose the remainder of the tribe of 
Levi were set aside. The Levites, therefore, formed a 
special class by themselves, the sacerdotal class. As 
they were designed to be the instructors of the people, 
they were not settled in one locality, but were dispersed 
among the tribes. Forty-eight cities were assigned 
them. They were not agriculturists, but lands were 
given them on which to sustain their flocks. They 
were the learned body among the Hebrews, the priestly 
tribe, the judges in religious matters. In their capacity 



244 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



of priests and Levites, they performed the acts of public 
worship. We are not to understand the prophets were 
necessarily Levites. God raised them up from among 
all the tribes. 

Moses is said to have organized the civil government 
of the tribes, in that he appointed rulers of thousands, 
rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, 
who were to be judges in all small matters, he, himself, 
being judge in all great causes. The probabilities are 
that this organization was mostly military; at any rate, 
afterwards, among their military officers, we find leaders 
of thousands and leaders of hundreds. We are justified 
in assuming that, as soon as the various tribes were 
settled in Palestine, the usual form of tribal government 
existed. Kadi tribe managed its own internal affairs. 
One tribe was in no way superior to the other, and could 
not, in any way, appoint officers in any except their own 
tribe. The details of this tribal organization, of course, 
are lacking. We have some expressions that are full of 
significance, however. The "prince of the tribe," or the 
"head of the tribe," can be no other than the chief. 
The "principal men," the "chief fathers of the families," 
the "elders of the tribe," are of course the council. The 
Levites, not being members of the tribe, could have 
filled none of these offices, and could not have acted as 
judges for them, except, possibly, in matters affecting 
religion. 

When the monarchy was established the king, of 
course, became the head of authority. Saul did not make 
radical changes. David, however, thoroughly reorgan- 
ized the government and centralized the power. This 
reorganization showed itself in two ways — in matters of 
religion and in military matters. It is probable that, as 



THE JEWS. 



245 



far as the dispensation of civil justice was concerned, the 
tribes would still have most of this work to do, though 
if a case was of importance, it would be appealed to the 
king. In matters of religion a great reformation was 
wrought. The priests and Levites were completely reor- 
ganized, divided into classes, and assigned to duty. We 
are told he assembled the Levites together, thirty-eight 
thousand in number. He assigned them for work as fol- 
lows : Four thousand were to be porters ; four thousand 
were to praise the Lord with instruments and with song ; 
twenty-four thousand were to "set forward the work of 
the house of the Lord" — that is, assist the priests in 
public worship. Only a portion of these were to work 
at one time. They were regularly subdivided, and had 
stated times of service. Then we are told that six thou- 
sand were "judges and officers." But we conclude their 
duties were only in matters pertaining to " God and the 
king." 1 The priests — that is, the Aaronites — were 
divided into twenty-four companies, each of which served 
a week. 

David's organization of his army was quite effective. 
The flower of his forces was a band of six hundred. This 
band constituted the first real standing army known. 
When they were not engaged in war they were quartered 
in Jerusalem. These six hundred were divided into 
bands of twenty men each. Over each twenty there was 
a captain set, making thirty captains in all. 2 Ten of 
these companies formed the next division, commanded 
by a superior officer ; so there would be three of these. 3 
Over all this band there was, of course, the general com- 
manding. In addition to this select band, who were 
called the heroes, the king had a force of foreigners, 

1 1 Chronicles xxvi, 29-32. 2 1 Chronicles xi, 15. 3 1 Chronicles xi, 12. 



246 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



mostly Philistines, of unknown strength. The officer 
commanding these was a Hebrew. 1 In times of war the 
king summoned levies from all the tribes. A perplexing 
mention is made of a band of twenty-four thousand men 
and their leader for each month of the year. 2 Perhaps 
they served, each year, one month at Jerusalem, by 
turns, so that the king would always have a force at his 
call. Finally, the king's general, or commander-in-chief, 
or minister of war, was over all the force. 

Then it was necessary that there be a number of 
ministers appointed to assist the king. The Recorder is 
mentioned; his real title was the Remembrancer. He 
was the king's chancellor, whose duty was to sec that 
important affairs of state were not neglected. Solomon 
had two secretaries, whose duties are expressed in their 
name. One officer is mentioned as being over the trib- 
ute; he was, in other words, the treasurer. Solomon 
introduced the office of Chamberlain. A number of 
officers were required to provide for the necessities of 
the court — such, for instance, as superintendents of royal 
lands, flocks, vineyards, etc. Then there were the stew- 
ards. Solomon appointed one for each month, whose 
duties were to provide supplies for the court for that 
month. Among the very highest officials of the land 
must be classed the High Priest, the official head of 
their religion. 

We will now resume the thread of our historical nar- 
rative. We have traced the Hebrews from a primitive 
people through many centuries of slow growth to a pros- 
perous empire. We have now a more sorrowful task 
before us : the decline and fall of that empire, and the 
dispersion of its citizens over the world. In many 

1 2 Samuel viii, 18. 2 1 Chronicles xxvii, 1-23. 




SOLOMON'S JUDGMENT. 



248 



THE JEWS. 



249 



respects Solomon's reign had been a glorious one; but 
the causes leading to the destruction of that empire can 
be traced to that same period. We must understand 
that the various tribes that composed the nation still 
retained their tribal organization, and had by no means 
forgotten their former mode of life. To provide for the 
luxurious court of Solomon, it had been necessary to levy 
taxes and impose burdens which were severely felt by 
the tribes. The dissatisfaction, however deep, was not 
given an opportunity to express itself as long as Solo- 
mon was alive. At his death, and on the accession of 
his son, it broke forth. 

As the Bible was not intended to teach us history, it 
is necessary to examine carefully the statements it 
makes. Rehoboam, Solomon's son, went to Shechem to 
be made king. This shows the respect felt for the 
ancient sanctuary. Jerusalem was, indeed, the capital, 
but no such wealth of tradition gathered around it as 
around Shechem; and "all Israel" came to make him 
king. We can only gather from this that representa- 
tives from all the tribes met there for this purpose. 
They probably claimed a right to choose the king. Now 
was the time to make an effort to relieve themselves of 
some of the burdens royalty was laying on them. So 
the dissatisfied ones, under the leadership of Jeroboam, 
demanded of the new king, before swearing fealty to 
him, a promise that he would lighten their burdens. 
This moderate request, despite the wise counsels of the 
elder men, was not only refused, but the would-be king 
was foolish enough to threaten a great increase of this 
burden. 

We can easily imagine that this answer was not at 
all acceptable to the majority of the tribal representa- 



250 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



tives, and they refused to have further to do with him. 
It was but natural that Judah should stand by Reho- 
boani, because he was a member of this tribe. Benja- 
min, or a large portion of it, was in his favor, because 
Jerusalem, the capital, was on their territory. The 
tribe of Levi would probably not take sides in this mat- 
ter. Simeon had been virtually absorbed by Judah long 
before this. The remaining nine tribes, and a portion 
of the tribe of Benjamin — making, however, ten tribes in 
all — summoned Jeroboam and made him king over them, 
and called the new kingdom Israel. We can see at a 
glance that Israel was the larger kingdom, both in popu- 
lotion and area, and their territory included the best 
portions of Canaan. But the tribes who asserted their 
rights in the matter of choosing a king would not be apt 
to forget them, and from the very start we can detect 
the workings of diverse elements in this kingdom, that 
made no scruple of removing the reigning king by assas- 
sination, if necessary, to further their ends. 

The truth of this last statement becomes very appar- 
ent when we examine their history. The nation re- 
mained in existence a little over two and a half centuries. 
During this period eighteen ditferent kings, belonging to 
seven ditferent dynasties, sat on the throne. This spirit 
of unrest, so apparent in their history, can be readily 
understood when we reflect on its origin. The ten tribes 
had asked for the redress of real grievances, and rebelled 
rather than submit to them. But such grievances Avere 
inherent in the rule of that early day. Constitutional 
government was unknown. To build and adorn their 
capital, to maintain their army in an effective condition, 
required the outlay of great sums of money, Avhich ne- 
cessitated the laying of heavy burdens. As far as free- 



THE JEWS. 



251 



dom from such burdens was concerned, the people were 
doomed to disappointment. 

In regard to religion, most serious results followed 
this change. We have seen that during Solomon's reign 
idolatry was openly practiced, but still the laws of Moses 
and the worship he had proclaimed were regarded as the 
true religion. The priesthood and the Levites were con- 
stant reminders to the people of the religion of their 
fathers. The temple of this religion was at Jerusalem, 
and thither the devout were commanded to go, to be pres- 
ent at the celebration of the great feasts. Jeroboam 
could see in this custom nothing but danger for his king- 
dom. He wished to adopt some measure which would 
keep his subjects at home, and, at the same time, destroy 
the feeling of reverence for Jerusalem. 

To best effect this purpose, he had two golden calves 
made, and he erected sanctuaries or temples for them, 
placing one at Dan, in the northern part of his kingdom, 
and one at Bethel, but a short distance from Jerusalem. 
He appointed priests for them, and arranged feast days, 
and in all ways encouraged the people to worship them, 
rather than go to Jerusalem. The worship of the calf 
was in imitation of Egypt, which worshiped the god 
Apis in the form of a bull. The results following from 
this step can be foreseen. 

The masses of the people, scarcely fitted to compre- 
hend the spiritual nature of God, were ready to go astray, 
and they flocked as one man to these sanctuaries. This 
could not fail to displease the Levites, who seemed to 
have mostly migrated to Judah, thus depriving the north- 
ern kingdom of its learned class. Thus we see how the 
reigning families of Israel were led to take a stand 
against the religion of olden times, which called for 



252 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



severe denunciations at the hands of the prophets, and 
arrayed against them the older religion. Thus we can 
see the kingdom was but illy prepared to meet the hopes 
of its founders, or the better elements among its founders. 
And thus it is that, during - the whole course of its his- 
tory, we have evidence of an internal conflict, showing 
itself by frequent and bloody revolutions. 

We do not care to do more than supplement the ac- 
count given in the Bible. We only wish to help the 
reader to a fuller knowledge of these times. We shall, 
therefore, hurry over the history of this nation. The two 
nations of the Hebrews, for the first fifty years of their 
separate existence, were often at war with each other, and 
one was ready to summon to its aid the arms of a more 
powerful nation. Thus, for instance, Jeroboam entered 
into an alliance with Egypt for the subjugation of Judah. 
Jerusalem itself was captured by the Egyptian allies, and 
only saved from destruction by the payment of heavy 
ransom by the son of Solomon. At a later date, under 
the reign of Baasha, Judah was saved only by the inter- 
vention of the Syrians, a people who paid tribute to Solo- 
mon, but who speedily regained their independence, and 
now, at the prayer of Asa, invaded Israel and compelled 
Baasha to retire his forces from Judah. 

"When Omri, the founder of a new dynasty, ascended 
the throne, he adopted a different policy and made peace 
with Judah. Omri ruled his kingdom with energy. He 
had been commander-in-chief of the army, and by his 
soldiers had been proclaimed king. He built Samaria, 
made peace with the Syrians, and turned his attention to 
trade. What chiefly helped him in this direction was 
his alliance with the Phoenicians, the traders of antiquity, 
who so advanced the material prosperity of the reign of 



THE JEWS. 



253 



Solomon. Omri was a soldier ; lie had no great reverence 
for the prophets or the Jewish religion. 

His son, Ahab, married Jezebel, a Syrian princess, and 
thus was introduced into Israel the worship of Baal and 
other of the customs of the Phoenicians. The four kings 
of Israel belonging to the house of Omri ruled Israel for 
about fifty years. In the main, they were capable rulers, 
but they were all indifferent in religious matters. It is, 
therefore, not strange that Jezebel, wife of the second 
king of this house, and mother of the last two, a woman 
of strong will, and firmly attached to the worship of 
Baal, should have exercised such a woeful influence in 
the nation. She virtually trampled Judaism under foot, 
silenced the prophets, and established the worship of 
Baal as the state religion. 

It was when things were in this deplorable plight, as 
far as religious matters were concerned, that the great 
prophet Elijah appears on the scene. It is necessary to 
speak a little more particularly as to Elijah and his suc- 
cessor, Elisha, since by their efforts a wonderful reforma- 
tion was wrought, and a new family raised up to rule 
over Israel. At the very time when heathenism appeared 
to_ be triumphant, when the prophets were silenced, 
when the priests of Baal, supported by public expense, 
worshiped in a temple erected at Samaria, Elijah appears 
and announces to Ahab that a great famine was impend- 
ing over Israel. Then we read how miraculously the 
great prophet was sustained during that period. At the 
proper time he again appears before the king, upbraids 
him and his father's house for their course in regard to 
the worship of Baal, and demands a public test to deter- 
mine whether Baal could hear and answer prayer, and 
to demonstrate that God could. We know how this test 



1'.-) 1 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ended in the defeat and overthrow of the priests of Baal. 
The influence of Jezebel alone prevented the full suc- 
cess of this victory; but, as it was, the worship of Baal 
received a severe check, and after this the prophets of 
Judaism regained somewhat their old influence. 

It is somewhat strange that neither Elijah nor Elisha 
had aught to say against the worship of the golden calves 
set up by Jeroboam. At the end of the first century of 
the separate existence of the kingdom of Israel we read 
of the sudden rise of Jehu to be king, and the founder 
of a new royal house. In this we see the results of the 
reformation begun by Elijah and continued by Elisha. 
This revolution was an effort made by the prophets to 
stamp out heathenism. It was the last effort in this 
direction in the history of the kingdom of Israel. It 
succeeded in stamping out the worship of Baal, but the 
worship of the golden calves still continued. Though 
we may understand, if we so desire, that these images 
were but the symbol of God, and not in themselves 
objects of worship, yet the masses of the people were 
not in themselves capable of making this distinction, 
and so we are not surprised at the continued relapse of 
the people into idolatry. 

Jehu was an energetic soldier. He commenced his 
reign by murdering all the members of the house of 
Omri. He put to death also all the priests of Baal, art- 
full v concealing his true purpose until he had them in 
his power. He then turned his attention to his king- 
dom, which, at that time, was in straightened circum- 
stances. The S} r rians had taken advantage of the con- 
fusion incidental to a change in the royal family, and 
seem to have conquered all east of the Jordan ; yet the 
house of Jehu contained valiant warriors, and victory 



THE JEWS. 



255 



gradually returned to them. The reign of Jeroboam II, 
the fourth king of this dynasty, was probably the most 
glorious period in the history of Israel after the separa- 
tion. He reconquered, in the first few years of his long 
reign, on the north and east all that David and Solomon 
had ever possessed. 

The immediate results were, that his people, after so 
long a period of distress, could once more " dwell in 
tents, in peace," as in the days of old. 1 This prosperous 
reign, lasting over fifty years, recalls much that is sim- 
ilar in the reign of Solomon. The capital was beautified 
with magnificent buildings of every sort. All this can 
be gathered from the prophetic book of Amos, written 
in the first half of this reign. Wealth increased among 
the people, and with wealth came many evils. The 
people sunk in debauchery and excesses of all kinds. 
The prophets Amos and Hosea can scarcely condemn in 
strong enough language the state of society. The state 
of religion is thus described by the distinguished his- 
torian, Ewald: "As, in the time of Solomon, the freer 
intercourse of the people with heathen nations, who had 
either been conquered, or were distinguished by com- 
merce and art, together with the general spread of loose- 
ness and intemperance of life, caused an extensive intro- 
duction of heathen religions; while it became customary 
to satisfy the claims of the ancient religion of the land, 
in the low state to which it had sunk, by rich offer- 
ings and drunken orgies, so that it actually plunged the 
people yet deeper in moral apathy." 

It is a simple matter of history that such a state 'of 
society precedes the fall of any kingdom, and especially 
is this true of the earlier ages of the world's history. 

1 2 Kings xiii, 5. 



2W 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



The prophets Elijah and Elisha had made a most vigor- 
ous effort to reform Israel, and had failed. The funda- 
mental principle of the kingdom in regard to religion, 
that was image worship, formed by Jeroboam, led, with 
a certainty, to heathenism. The numerous revolutions 
enfeebled the power of the monarchy. The ruling fan!? 
ily was secure only so long as the throne was filled by a 
vigorous and warlike king. The prophet Hosea, who 
wrote near the end of Jeroboam's reign, clearly per- 
ceived, as Amos and other prophets of Judah did, that 
there was no hopes of the continued existence of Israel 
as a kingdom. The writings abound in language fore- 
telling speedy ruin. 

It is here necessary to speak a word in regard to the 
Assyrians, the people who finally overthrew the kingdom 
of Israel. The Bible contains but little in regard to this 
people. Modern research has established the fact that, 
for many centuries preceding 1250 B. C, two rival king- 
doms, Babylonia and Assyria, held sway in the fertile* 
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. About that time 
Assyria reduced Babylonia and formed one compact king- 
dom. Their power then dwindled, since, though David 
nominally, at least, reduced the country as far as the 
Euphrates River, no mention is made of Assyria. About 
the time of Jeroboam II the Assyrians suddenly renewed 
their activity, and commenced to reduce the country to 
the west of the Euphrates Paver. 

With the Assyrians commenced the great movement 
of the warlike nations of the North against the nations 
of the south-western part of Asia and of Egypt, which 
was continued during the following centuries by the 
Chaldeans, Medo-Persians, and Grecians. Their o bject 
of conquest was also new in the world's history. Here- 



THE JEWS. 



257 



tofore tribute was the object sought by the wars of the petty 
nations of Asia Minor. The conquered monarchs were left 
on their throne if they promised to pay a sufficiently 
heavy tribute. Every thing was considered in the light 
of immediate profit and the pursuit of wealth and enjoy- 
ment. But the Assyrians desired to found a single great 
and mighty empire, in which the passions of petty nation- 
ality might be quenched; when they conquered a coun- 
try they were not to be placated by the promise of a 
tribute, but effectual steps were taken to crush out the 
nationality of the people. A favorite method was to 
remove all the more vigorous and powerful of the inhab- 
itants of a conquered nation to some distant part of the 
empire, which they were not to leave under pain of 
death. 

" It is the merit of the great prophets of Israel, who 
arose at this time, to have early recognized and clearly 
announced the profound importance of these Assyrians, 
and the divine destiny to which they were called with 
regard to all the decaying kingdoms of the South-west. 
When Jeroboam II was at the very summit of his power, 
and the Assyrians had not yet crossed the Euphrates, 
Amos already predicted their coming as the divine chas- 
tisement on all the kingdoms of the West, but especially 
on that of the ten tribes; his allusions to them are evi- 
dent, though he does not mention them by name. When 
they afterwards became better known west of the 
Euphrates, and many persons in the kingdom of the ten 
tribes looked toward them as friends and allies, Hosea 
foretold distinctly that they should turn out, on the con- 
trary, its destroyers. And Isaiah described them in the 
distinctest terms as the heavy rod in the hand of God 



258 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



for the punishment of all the many nations of the West, 
and especially of Judah.'' 1 

It will now take but a short space to describe events 
from the death of Jeroboam to the fall of the kingdom. 
His successor, Zechariah, of whom almost nothing is 
known, maintained his authority for only six months. 
He fell before a conspiracy in the army; and this con- 
spiracy was only the parent of many others. Shall urn, 
who succeeded him, reigned for only one month, when he 
gave way to Monahem. These revolutions threw the 
kingdom into the greatest confusion. The provinces at 
once rebelled. The Syrians of Damascus re-established 
their kingdom. Judah took under its protection valuable 
territory to the east of the Jordan, and the Philistines 
invaded the country from the south-west. The internal 
affairs were greatly unsettled, and lawlessness run riot 
throughout the kingdom. The Assyrian king, Pul, to 
whom rich presents had been sent, finally visited the 
country in person, to assist the king in restoring order. 
Menahem's reign continued ten years, but his son and 
successor was murdered after reigning two years. 

Pekah, the new king, was at first busily engaged in 
establishing order throughout his kingdom. From verses 
in Zechariah, supposed to refer to him, it is evident he 
ruled in no gentle manner. To make good the losses 
sustained by his kingdom, he entered into an alliance 
with the king of Syria, the object of which was nothing 
less than the destruction of Judah, and the division of 
its territory and spoils among themselves. This was 
carried on for some time with varying success. The 
allies wrested from Judah all the territory east of the 
Jordan, and would probably have completely reduced 

1 Ewald. 



THE JEWS. 



259 



Judah but that Ahaz appealed for protection to Assyria. 
Suffice to say, the Assyrians responded to this appeal. 
They utterly destroyed the Syrian Kingdom, but con- 
tented themselves with reducing the Israelites to heavy 
tribute. 

Another revolution now takes place, and Hosea, the 
last king of Israel, ascends the throne. He seems to 
have been in many respects a better king than his pre- 
decessors, but he was not able to avert the impending 
ruin. The whole country groaned under the heavy hand 
of the Assyrians ; besides, they were apprehensive of the 
fate that had befallen their former allies, the Syrians. 
A favorable opportunity, as they thought, presented 
itself for throwing off the yoke. An alliance was made 
with Egypt, but before help could arrive from that 
quarter, the Assyrians were upon them. Hosea seems 
to have been taken by surprise and imprisoned. Then 
the whole country roused itself for its death struggle. 
Samaria made a heroic resistance, but in vain; after 
withstanding a siege of three years, it fell. The larger 
number, and the most valiant of the inhabitants, were 
immediately banished to distant Assyrian cities, and 
thus the kingdom of Israel was blotted out. 

We must now go back and bring up the history of 
Judah, which, on the whole, had had a more prosperous 
existence during this period, and for reasons not difficult 
to determine. There was virtually but one tribe in this 
kingdom, Judah. He who sought to raise a revolt could 
not avail himself of the powerful lever of tribal jealousy 
to help him. So, also, in matters of religion. The 
worship of God, as commanded by Moses, remained 
always the state religion. It is true, some of the kings 
encouraged heathenism, yet others sternly sought to 

16 



260 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



repress it. Thus the religious elements of the people, 
the priests and Levites, were, for most of the time, in 
favor of the reigning king. There would be much less 
of internal disturbance. In the history of the kingdom 
of Judah we have accounts of revolutions, but there was 
-no change in the royal family. The house of David 
furnished all the kings of Judah. 

Rehoboam reigned seventeen years. Like his father, 

• s "l on, he tolerated or even promoted the practice of 

foreign religious rites. He, of course, had to turn his 
immediate attention to the defense of his kingdom, not 
only against Israel, but against Egypt. We have seen 
how he had to ransom his capital from the Egyptians. 
The important province of Edom, which naturally fell to 
the possession of Judah, regained, in a great measure at 
least, its freedom. The Philistines also successfully 
rebelled. His son, Abijah, reigned three years. Like 
his father, he maintained the independence of Judah 
only by constant war with Israel. 

His successor, Asa, was one of the best kings of 
Judah. He made an earnest effort to root out idolatry. 
He was successful in some of his military undertakings, 
but narrowly escaped total defeat at the hands of Israel, 
being saved only by the Syrians. He reigned forty- 
seven years, and lived to see Judah and Israel adopt a 
more rational conduct towards each other, and, after fifty 
years of almost constant warfare, contract treaties of 
peace. His son, Jehoshaphat, was another excellent king. 
Successful in war, he reconquered all of Edom, and, like 
David, extended his rule to the Arabian Sea. He pro- 
moted trade, and reorganized the judiciary of his king- 
dom. He appointed a commission to visit every place 



THE JEWS. 



261 



in his kingdom, to give instruction in the matter of 
religion and civil law 

The peace between Israel and Judah, though advan- 
tageous for both, was the means of introducing a train 
of evils into the latter kingdom. To cement the friend- 
ship between the two nations, Jehoram, the son of 
Jehoshaphat, married Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel. 
This woman was endowed with much the same spirit as 
her mother, and exercised much the same influence for 
evil over her husband and sons. The worship of Baal 
was introduced into Judah, and in Jerusalem a temple 
was built for him. When Jehu overthrew the house of 
Omri, in Israel, the house of David came near being 
involved in the same disaster. Ahaziah, son of Athaliah 
and king of Judah, was then on a visit to his uncle, the 
king of Israel, and rode with him in a chariot to meet 
Jehu. We have seen how the king of Israel was killed. 
Ahaziah attempted to escape, but was wounded, and died 
before reaching Jerusalem. The queen-mother, Athaliah, 
when she learned this, ordered all the princes of the 
house of David put to death, from which fate the infant 
son of Ahaziah was saved by his nurse, and concealed 
in the temple. 

Athaliah now reigned as queen for six years. We 
have no other instance in the history of Israel or Judah 
of a queen. The bold stroke for power sufficiently shows 
the character of the woman, and we no longer wonder 
at the influence she exerted. We are not told any of 
the incidents of her reign. When the infant prince, 
Jehoash, was six years of age, the high priest, who had 
concealed him, revealed the secret to the captains of the 
body-guard, and concerted with them a successful plan 
for deposing the queen and crowning Jehoash. Brought 



262 



THE BIBLE COMPAXIOX. 



up. as he had been from infancy, in the house of the 
high priest, and by him, while yet a child, raised to 
power, it would have boon strange if he had not been 
greatly under his influence all his life. Thus was the 
ancient religion again triumphant in Judah. But he was 
not a king to advance the interests of his country. The 
Philistines once more gained their independence, and the 
Syrian army, flushed with their victories over Israel, 
invaded Judah as well, and safety was purchased only by 
a heavy ransom. 

It was during the dark and discouraging days of this 
reign that the prophet Joel wrote. Jehoash was finally, 
in the fortieth year of his reign, murdered, and his son, 
Amaziah, elevated to the throne. This king reigned 
twenty-nine years. He punished his father's murderers, 
humbled the Edomites, and, for the mere love of fight- 
ing, made war on Israel, but was defeated and taken 
captive. His capital was pillaged, and he probably did 
not regain his liberty until the accession of Jeroboam II. 
His reign, having in it but little of honor save that he 
had always been loyal to the ancient religion, was ended 
by a revolt, and Uzziah, his son, "reigned in his stead." 

This king ruled fifty-two years, and proved himself 
one of the most vigorous of rulers. Equally great in 
the arts of peace and those of war, he fully restored 
the internal prosperity and external honor of Judah, and 
extended his sway more widely than any king of Judah. 
He reconquered Edom, opened ports on the Red Sea, 
subdued Philistia, strengthened the fortifications of his 
country, and thoroughly equipped and disciplined his 
army. The overthrow of the house of Jehu, in Israel, 
happened during his reign, and, in the great confusion 
thence resulting, the countries beyond the Jordan volunta- 



THE JEWS. 



263 



rily placed themselves under his protection. Near the 
end of his life he was afflicted with leprosy, the curse of 
Oriental nations, and dwelt apart from the people, and 
his son Jotham was made king. Jotham closely resem- 
bled his father in disposition, and ruled with equal wis- 
dom and success. He held the country east of the Jordan 
in a firm grasp. Commerce prospered, fie improved 
his capital, and built cities in what was before desert 
places. Toward the last years of his reign he had to 
withstand the combined attacks of Israel and Sy 
we have narrated. 

For nearly seventy years the nation had enjoyed 
peace and prosperity, yet causes were at work which were 
now to bear bitter fruit. Some of these causes were 
outside of the kingdom, and would have confronted the 
people no matter what might have been the internal 
condition. Such, for instance, as the alliance of Israel 
and Syria for the reduction of Judah. The very pros- 
perity of this latter kingdom tempted this alliance. 
Then there was the growing power of the Assyrians. 
They had passed the Euphrates, and were but gathering 
force wherewith to sweep before them the petty nation- 
alities of Western Asia. 

If we will consider the state of society in Judah at 
this time, we will perceive that, as a nation, they were 
little fitted to meet the difficulties pressing from the out- 
side. For seventy years the people had been growing 
luxurious and pleasure-loving. They had become ad- 
dicted to trade and commerce, and had lost the simplicity 
of early times. We can gather from the reading of the 
prophets Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah, that it was an age of 
skepticism. The people were filled Avith the religious 
conceits of the heathen nations by which they were sur- 



264 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



rounded, and introduced the worship of false gods, even 
against the wishes of such kings as Uzziah and Jotham. 

It demanded a wise and energetic king to deal with 
these many difficulties. Unfortunately, Ahaz, who had 
succeeded Jotham, was sadly deficient in these respects. 
Instead of rebuking the national tendency of the people 
to heathenism, he embraced it himself with ardor. Every 
form of superstition was tolerated. "All the hosts of 
heaven" were worshiped, showing intimacy with Bab- 
ylon. The king himself sacrificed one of his own sons 
to Moloch. Capricious innovations without number, and 
the gratification of the worst passions, mark the rule of 
this prince. lie was not a successful general, as his 
father and grandfather had been, lie lost the conquests 
they had made, and was so sore pressed by the alliance 
against him that, despite the warnings of Isaiah, he 
acknowledged himself the vassal of Assyria, and prayed 
for assistance. It was effective. It relieved him from 
the attacks of Syria and Israel ; but the honor and inde- 
pendence of Judah was a portion of the heavy cost paid 
for this deliverance. 

Isaiah stands forth as one of the great prophets of 
Judah, and as he exercised his greatest influence at just 
about this time, it is necessary that we speak more par- 
ticularly about him. Personally we know nothing of 
him, except as we discover him in his writings. These 
indicate a man of high cultivation, and more than usual 
knowledge. He seems familiar not only with the affairs 
of his own land, but of foreign lands as well. His writ- 
ings are largely poetry, rich in illustrations, and have a 
finish and perfection not found in the writings of any other 
of the prophets. He commenced his public work near 
the very close of Uzziah's reign. We read that he wrote 



THE JEWS. 



265 



the life of that king. "We know but little of him during 
the reign of Jot ham, but we suppose that he labored 
faithfully among the people of Jerusalem. When Ahaz 
ascends the throne he is the figure that rises up to 
reprove alike people and king for their deeds. Around 
him must have centered the hopes of the best people of 
Judah. 

Fortunately for the welfare of Judah, Hezekiah, the 
next king, proved to be one of the best kings that ever 
sat on the throne of Judah. We seem justified in claim- 
ing that Isaiah, by his faithful labors in Jerusalem, had 
gathered around him a band of earnest men, and happily 
succeeded in influencing the heir of the throne as well. 
His reign of twenty-nine years was from the first a per- 
sistent struggle against most embarrassing circumstances, 
crowned with ultimate success. He was wanting in 
neither military spirit nor personal valor, yet devoted 
by preference to the arts of peace. In religion he rev- 
erenced the teachings of Moses as expounded by Isaiah. 
In peace he prepared for war, fortified Jerusalem, and 
gathered materials for warfare. It was in the sixth year 
of his reign that the final overthrow of the kingdom of 
the ten tribes occurred. 

At this time the Assyrians stood at the very height 
of their power. Ewald, the historian, thinks, from cer- 
tain passages in Isaiah, that at this time an Assyrian 
army threatened Judah, which only escaped by the pay- 
ment of tribute. Standing in dread of the Assyrians, 
the people were inclined to do exactly as Israel had 
clone — that was, form an alliance with Egypt. Isaiah'p- 
influence alone prevented this alliance. Looked at from 
a purely human stand-point, such an alliance would have 
been fatal to Judah. The Assyrians would have been 



266 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



only too ready to have used this as a pretext for crush- 
ing Judah, as they had Israel. As it was, the nation 
felt for years the heavy hand of Assyria. How that 
oppression was relieved, how, in some mysterious man- 
ner, the mighty army of the Assyrians melted away in a 
single night, is briefly told in the Bible. 1 The rest of 
Hezekiah's reign passed away in honor and prosperity. 
Fie probably restored the ancient bounds of the king- 
dom. We must remark that the prophet Micah was liv- 
ing during this reign, and his book was written during 
the dark period of Assyrian oppression. 

We read in the Scriptural narrative that Manasseh, 
who succeeded llezekiah, was the exact opposite of that 
king in religious practices. lie restored all the different 
kinds of heathen practices which were in use under his 
grandfather, Aha/.. We can in this see the workings of 
two different parties among the citizens of Judah. There 
was. first, the Religious party, that, under the leadership 
of the prophets, saw that the only hope for their land 
lay in holding aloof from alliances with all of the heathen 
nations by which they were surrounded, and holding fast 
to the ancient religion of their country. The other party 
may be called the Heathen party, that believed in culti- 
vating friendly relations with all the surrounding na- 
tions, and placing all religions on the same basis. This 
party had been in full ascendency during the reign of 
Ahaz, the Religious party during the reign of Hezekiah, 
Manasseh, by some means, had fallen under the influ- 
ence of the Heathen party. Beyond a doubt, this party 
presented more attractions to the young and pleasure- 
loving king than the Religious party, who sternly insisted 
on obedience to the religion of Moses. 



1 2 Kings xix. 



THE JEWS. 



267 



Manasseh has the longest reign of any of the kings 
of Judah, extending over fifty-five years. But very littie 
is told us of this reign. The Heathen party, now in the 
ascendant, at once re-established the various religions 
that Hezekiah had attempted to suppress, and provided 
better facilities for their celebration. They seem to have 
gone farther, and subjected the believers in the ancient 
religion to persecution, since we read that Manasseh 
filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. We may be sure 
that the moral degradation of the people went forward 
with great rapidity. The prophet Zephaniah, writing 
soon after the close of this reign, gives us an insight into 
the state of society. The author of Chronicles gives us 
an incident of his reign not mentioned in Kings. We 
gather that the Assyrians once more invaded Judah, and 
took Manasseh prisoner, and carried him captive to 
Babylon, then in their possession. He was probably not 
kept in captivity long, and on the death of his captor, 
Esarhaddon, if not before, he was liberated, and on his 
return ruled with much more moderation. 

With reference to the external condition of his king- 
dom we know but very little. After his return from captiv- 
ity he ruled with more prudence. He fortified Jerusalem, 
as we read in Chronicles. From expressions in Jere- 
miah, we conclude he entered into alliance with Egypt 1 
after the decline of the Assyrian power. This must 
have greatly promoted trade, and we can readily believe 
the last part of his reign was comparatively a prosperous 
one. He was succeeded by his son, Anion, who reigned 
but two years, when he was assassinated, and his son 
Josiah, then a child of but eight years of age, was made 
king. 

Jeremiah ii, 18, 36. 



20s 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



With the accession of Josiah the Religious party again 
came to the front. The Biblical account of his reign is 
mostly taken up with t lie account of the great reforma- 
tion ho effected. Events transpired in the early years 
of Josiah well calculated to awaken the kingdom of Judah 
out of the moral apathy into which it had plunged dur- 
ing the long reign of Manassch. The Assyrians, though 
they still held Nineveh, had ceased to be a great power. 
From the mysterious North-east came forth a savage 
people, the Scythians, who overrun the fertile Tigris 
plain. It is considered probable that some of their 
armies penetrated to IOgypt, overrun much of the terri- 
tory of Israel, and threatened Jerusalem. 

Scythopolis, on the right bank of the Jordan, still 
perpetuates the memory of their invasion. The Bible 
is silent on this point, yet we can see their presence must 
have had a tendency to powerfully awaken the kingdom 
of Judah. At any rate, after their disappearance we find 
a great reformation in progress. The king gave all his 
energies to this object. Idolatry was most rigorously 
suppressed. Much of the territory of the ten tribes 
seems to have been overrun by the forces of Josiah, since 
we find him busily engaged in suppressing idolatry 
among them also. 1 Sanctuaries erected to heathen deities 
as long ago as the days of King Solomon were now 
destroyed. 

This good king was cut off in the very flower of his 
days; he was slain in battle against the Egyptians. 
With the overthrow of the Assyrian power, the Egyp- 

1 2 Kings xxiii, 19. Assyria, which had heen growing weaker for many 

years, was now engaged in its death struggle with the Modes and Babylonians, and 
was powerless to prevent encroachments on its territory. It is quite permissible to 
suppose that such an energetic king as Josiah would take this occasion to extend 
his rule over territory that he would naturally regard as belonging to him. 



THE JEWS. 



269 



tians resolved to gain possession of some of the Assyrian 
territory, and set out to conquer the territory of Syria, 
and what had belonged to the ten tribes. 1 Josiah could 
but regard this as an infringement on his own rights. 
There is every evidence that he was gradually extending 
his sway in that same direction. He accordingly went to 
war with him, and, to the great grief of his subjects, was 
defeated and killed. "The grief of the people at the fall 
of their brave and pious king, at the age of thirty-nine 
years, was extraordinarily deep. . . . Long years 
after, the elegies composed on him by Jeremiah, and 
sung among the people, were still perserved, and were 
repeated with a sad pleasure on the days set apart for 
the commemoration of the royal hero." 

We have had occasion to mention the most important 
prophets and their writings. In the troublesome times 
that now ensue the prophet Jeremiah is the great figure. 
He commenced his public work in the early part of 
Josiah's reign. He was not at that time a resident of 
Jerusalem. His vigorious denunciation of the sins of the 
people doubtless had considerable to do with the refor- 
mation a few years later. The larger part of his writings 
date from the time following the fall of Josiah. The 
reformation under King Josiah was a violent one, and 
carried out with all the force the king could exert. But 
a people can not be reformed by legislative enactments; 
the Heathen party was by no means crushed. On the 
other hand, they doubtless formed the strongest party in 
the kingdom. On the death of Josiah they again came 



1 It is necessary to remark that some good authorities think Josiah went to 
war with the Egyptian king because he considered himself the vassal of Babylon, 
and so was in duty bound to protect his kingdom. We are not aware of any evi- 
dence to base this conclusion on. On this point see Ewald's History. 



270 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



to the front, and formed the ruling power the remain- 
der of the existence of the kingdom of Judah. The old 
idolatries were at once re-introduced, and ever after 
remained in force. 

On the fall of Josiah the Egyptians became masters 
of Judah; but they left them for three months, while 
they pursued their original intentions of conquering 
Syria. The people in the meanwhile raised Jehoahaz to 
the throne. Three months later the Egyptians had 
accomplished their designs on Syria, and were ready to 
turn their attention to Judah. They resolved to treat it 
as a conquered country. From their camp at Riblah, 
north of the Holy Land, they sent for the new king. 
They deposed him, kept him in captivity, made his older 
brother, Jehoiakim, king, and imposed a heavy tribute on 
the kingdom. Jehoiakim reigned eleven years, and was 
also, in all things religious, the reverse of his father 
Josiah. He grievously oppressed the people to raise the 
tribute demanded by Egypt, From a verse in Ezekiel, 
we conclude he introduced into Judah the gross idolatry 
of Egypt. 1 In the very beginning of his reign, Jeremiah, 
inspired by God, strongly urged the people to repentance, 
but in vain. 2 They even sought to take his life, so angry 
were they against him. They did put to death another 
prophet of this period. 

The Egyptian vassalage did not, however, continue 
long. On the ruins of the Assyrian Empire, the Baby- 
lonian had arisen. A conflict between this power and 
Egypt, to determine which should be master of Syria 
and Judah, was inevitable. The course of events was 
revealed to the prophet Jeremiah, and he announced to 
the Jews the pending conquest of Judah by the Baby- 

1 Ezekiel viii, 10. 2 Jeremiah xxii. 



THE JEWS. 



271 



lonians, or the Chaldeans, and the seventy years of 
cai^tivity. 1 The Egyptians were not able to afford' 
their allies the needed j^rotection. Jehoiakim was com- 
pelled to acknowledge himself vassal to the king of 
Babylon, and soon the Egyptians themselves were 
driven out of Asia. 

We may be sure the Chaldeans imposed no light 
burdens on this unhappy country. Their rule was 
doubtless far more severe than that of Egypt had been, 
since three years later Jehoiakim resolved to revolt. 
This step was but the beginning of the end. The Chal- 
dean army arrived before the city, bringing with them 
the ancient foes of Judah, the Moabites and the 
Amorites. Jehoiakim seems to have been enticed be- 
yond the city and murdered. This deed had been 
predicted by Jeremiah. The people of Jerusalem did 
not yet despair. The} 7 " had many strong fortresses, and 
they probably hoped for succor from Egypt. Jehoiachin, 
son of Jehoiakim, was made king. The resistance con- 
tinued for three months longer, and then the young king 
surrendered at discretion. 

It is probable that Nebuchadnezzar made some 
promises at this surrender, for he did not blot out the 
kingdom entirely. The king, with his mother, and a 
number of his court were sent in exile to Babylon. And 
all the trained troops, and principal men of every class, 
the skilled workmen, heads of the noble families, and 
priests, to the number of ten thousand, were also carried 
away captive. But the semblance of the kingdom was 
left, and Zedekiah, third son of Josiah, was made king. 
The story of his eleven years' reign can be briefly told. 
We would naturally think that the enfeebled kingdom, 

'Jeremiah xxv. 



272 



THE P.IP.LE COMPANION". 



but a .shadow of its former greatness, would be very 
careful not to arouse the anger of the Chaldeans, and 
that the thought of revolt would not for a moment be 
entertained, yet nothing is plainer than that they were 
continually planning revolt. 

The people of Judah could not bring themselves to 
think they were doomed to remain under vassalage to 
the Chaldeans, In this hope of a speedy deliverance, 
they were cheered by multitudes of false prophets that 
sprang up in Jerusalem. 1 Jeremiah labored most ear- 
nestly to dispel this idea. We judge that, in the third 
or fourth year of Zcdekiah's reign, nearly all the petty 
nations around Judah were endeavoring to excite that 
kingdom to unite with them in a revolt against Babylon. 
Jeremiah most solemnly warned Zedekiah against this 
step. 2 His warnings seem to have been heeded at this 
time, and Zedekiah sent embassadors to Babylon to 
assure them of his loyalty; 3 or even, as we read in one 
place, going thither himself for that purpose. 4 

The captives who had been carried away included 
the best portion of the people, 5 and they longed greatly 
to return to Judah. Jeremiah took the occasion of the 
embassy, just mentioned, to send them a letter, advising 
them to settle in quiet and be content. 6 It seems to 
have been the common impression that they would soon 
be restored to Judah. The prophet Hananiah boldly 
proclaimed they "would be restored in two years. Jere- 
miah denounced him, foretold his death, and, in the 
letter just mentioned, he assured the captives they would 
be in captivity seventy years. The prophet Ezekiel, who 
was among the prophets carried away to the banks of 

•Jeremiah xxvii, 14. 2 Jeremiah xxvii. 3 Jeremiah xxix, 3. 

* Jeremiah li, 59. 6 Jeremiah xxiv. 6 Jeremiah xxix. 



THE JEWS. 



273 



the River Cliebar, about this time, also assured his 
fellow captives that certain destruction was impending- 
over Judah, and that it was vain to hope for any speedy 
release. 

Still the plotting in Jerusalem against the galling 
yoke of the Chaldeans continued. Egypt was continually 
holding out inducements. 1 Finally, when the troubles 
began between Tyre and Chaldee, about the ninth year 
of Zedekiah, the discontent in Jerusalem was so great 
that open revolt ensued, despite the warnings of Jere- 
miah. A* few months later, a Chaldean army was before 
Jerusalem. The people prepared for a brave resistance. 
The Egyptians made an effort to help Juclah, and sent 
an army, which necessitated the Chaldeans to raise the 
siege and go forth and battle with them. Jeremiah 
again warned the people and king of the uselessness of 
the revolt. He urged them to surrender, but they 
refused his advice. 

The Egyptians were defeated ; the siege of Jerusalem 
was recommenced, and this time prosecuted to a success- 
ful end. Zedekiah, with a small force, attempted to 
escape, but was captured near Jericho, and carried before 
the Chaldean king at Riblah. There his sons were put 
to death in his presence. He was then blinded and car- 
ried in chains to Babylon. A few weeks later, the 
Chaldean general proceeded to burn the temple, palaces, 
and magnificient dwellings of Jerusalem, and to destroy 
its walls. The first and second high priest, three 
keepers of the temple, the Avar minister and secretary, 
seven officers of the court, and sixty citizens, were sent 
to Riblah, and put to death before the king. The rest 
of the respectable inhabitants of Jerusalem, numbering 

1 Ezekiel xvii, 17. 



2 74 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



eight hundred and thirty-two, with the treasures of the 
temple, were carried to Babylon. 

The Chaldeans soon learned of the peculiar relations 
Jeremiah had sustained in reference to their forces. He 
was accordingly graciously treated by them, and allowed 
his liberty, with permission to live where he pleased. 
\\ e, of course, understand a great many people were left 
in the land. A certain Gedaliah had been appointed by 
the Chaldeans a sort of royal governor over the cities of 
Judah, with head-quarters at Mizpah, and thither Jere- 
miah retired. We judge that quite a respectable gov- 
ernment was capable of being organized. But Gedaliah 
was soon assassinated, and with him a small force of 
( 'haldeans. 

On this the Jews who had gathered there, evidently 
afraid of Chaldean vengeance, resolved to flee into Egypt. 
Jeremiah sought to detain them, but in vain ; he was 
carried with them. Even after this band had fled the 
country, there must have been a number of Jews left, as 
some sort of an organized rebellion was made five years 
later, and over seven hundred were carried away cap- 
tives. 1 With this the ruin of the kingdom of Judah 
seems to have been complete. 

We have thus brought our historical narrative down 
to the final destruction of the kingdom of Judah. Let 
us glance at the condition of the Holy Land during the 
time of the captivity, and first as to the territory of the 
ten tribes, which we know included the larger part 
of Palestine. When the Assyrians finally overthrew 
•Samaria, they carried away most of the inhabitants, and 
supplied their places with colonists from various Assyr- 
ian cities. This resulted in a mixed race in Samaria 



1 Jeremiah lii, 30. 



THE JEWS. 



275 



proper, and, in consequence, a mixed religion, in which 
there was a large element of Judaism. 1 A foreign popu- 
lation had also established themselves in Scythopolis 
(ancient Bethshean), and remained nominally an inde- 
pendent city. 

The population of the northern part of Palestine, sub- 
sequently called Galilee, presents grave problems for 
solution. It is more than likely that quite a large num- 
ber of the original population — that is, the Hebrews — 
were allowed to remain in the land. We know that 
after the restoration of Jerusalem and rebuilding of the 
temple, the inhabitants of this section opened up a con- 
nection with Jerusalem, and were regarded as Israelites 
in the true sense of the word. The country immediately 
around Jerusalem and to the north of it had been de- 
prived of their population, who were mostly carried to 
Babylon. All the section we have been describing was 
governed by the Chaldeans. All the southern part of 
Judah, as far west as Philistia and east of Jericho, was 
given by JNTcbuchednezzar to the Idumeans as a reward 
for their services, and held by them as vassals to 
Babylonia. 

We know but very little about the condition of the 
exiled Jews during the captivity. We need have no 
doubt that their sufferings were severe. Those who were 
settled under the supervision of the Chaldeans generally 
constituted a small community, confined, of course, to the 
territory assigned them. They were required to pay for 

'Though this seems to us the course of events, yet a number of our best 
authorities think the entire Hebrew population of Samaria was taken away, and 
that the Samaritans are wholly of heathen origin, and explain the presence of 
the Jewish traits of religion to the labors of the Israelite priest stationed among 
them, by the Assyrians, to appease the national deity by re-establishing his 
religion. 

17 



276 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



their existence in heavy service and tribute. Those who 
went with Jehoiachin enjoyed at first a tolerable degree 
of freedom, as may be gathered from the writings of their 
fellow-exile, Ezekiel. It is supposed, however, these 
advantages were subsequently lost. So time passed on. 
In the good providence of God the sufferings to which 
th • people were now subjected resulted in bringing them 
back to the religion of their fathers. 

Jeremiah had long before told the people that the 
period of captivity would be seventy years, and history 
shows that this prediction was fulfilled. 1 The downfall 
of the Babylonian power was nearly as sudden as its 
ris >. Nebuchednezzar built up a mighty empire, but 
twenty-three years after his death it fell before the attack 
of the Modes and Persians, and its power was at an end. ' 

Cyrus was at the head of the conquering forces, but 
he seems to have placed Darius, the Mode, at the head 
of affairs in Babylon, and it was not until two years 
later, or B. C. 536, that he assumed full management. 
We will now see what important bearing this had on 
the captive Jews. In the first place, the early Persian 
kings have the reputation of being magnanimous. The 
Assyrians and Babylonians built up great empires, but 
they had no other idea of government than to rule by 
force. They cared nothing for the happiness and welfare 
of the provinces they subdued. The Persians, on the 
contrary, had juster ideas on this point, and regarded in 

'From sevi ral texts in the Bible we learn that we are not to understand this 
prediction in the Bible too literally. Thus, for instance, Zechariah, twenty years 
after the restoration, speaks of the seventy years as stiil continuing. (Zecha- 
riah i, 12.) Strictly speaking, Jerusalem was a desolation only fifty, or at most, 
fifty-two years. From the time of the great deportation of the Jews at the down- 
fall of Jehoiachin to the first year of Cyrus was only sixty-one or sixty-three years. 
If we regard the captivity as really commencing when Jehoiokim became the 
vassal of Babylon, the time is very near seventy years. 



THE JEWS. 



277 



some measure the welfare of their subject provinces. 
No good reason would present itself to their mind why 
the Jews should be obliged to remain in captivity in the 
land of Chaldea. 

They thoroughly hated their late masters, the Chal- 
deans — why not win their gratitude by allowing them to 
return to their own country ? In matters of religion, on 
one point at least, the Persians and the Jews agreed: 
they both thoroughly detested the sensuous idol-worship 
that had prevailed from time immemorial in the Eu- 
phrates valley. The Persians must have regarded the 
faith in one God held by the Jews with complacency. 
They would on this account, also, be willing to show 
them a favor. 

In the first year of Cyrus he issued a decree permit- 
ting such of the Jews as wished to return to Jerusalem 
and to re-establish their religion. Accordingly a large 
number of the Jews availed themselves of this permis- 
sion. The first band, including servants, numbered 
about fifty thousand. Before the commencement of the 
expedition the individual exiles ranged themselves under 
prominent leaders, according to their ancestral houses. 
The decree that permitted their return must have va- 
cated for their use Jerusalem and the surrounding coun- 
try. The first step after arrival in Jerusalem must have 
been to divide the territory, settle the government, and 
arrange for the rebuilding of the temple. We can form 
quite clear ideas of the government of this colony. They 
were, of course, immediately under the jurisdiction of 
the Persian governor at Samaria ; but they were essen- 
tially self-governing. Among the captives was Zerub- 
babel, a descendant of the royal house, who was un- 
doubtedly a man of ability. He was the civil head. 



27S 



THK BIBLE COMPANION. 



His title was Tirshatha 1 — that is, high sheriff. We also 
detect the couneil of twelve members. 2 Jeshua was the 
high priest. 

Thus we find once again the Jews with an organized 
government at Jerusalem. But long years of trial yet 
lay before them. Their troubles commenced with the 
rebuilding of the temple. They were, of course, very 
anxious to re-establish their religion. Cyrus had taken 
enough interest in this matter to order the return of the 
vessels and ornaments taken from the temple by Ncbu- 
chedneszar. Accordingly, the foundations were laid amid 
great rejoicings. The knowledge of what they were 
doing soon reached the Samaritans. We have seen their 
religion was founded to some extent on Judaism. They 
sent an embassy to Jerusalem desiring the privilege of 
participating in this building. Their offer was refused, 
undoubtedly because the leaders at Jerusalem were afraid- 
that, by this means, corruption would creep into their 
own religion. 

This refusal angered the Samaritans, and was the 
means of calling into renewed activity the strife of former 
years. In consequence, they busied themselves in pro- 
curing a modification of the decree of Cyrus. They were 
successful, and for fifteen years all work on the tem- 
ple was stopped. The Bible passes rapidly over this 
period; it only gives a little of the correspondence the 
matter occasioned. During this interval occurred Cam- 
byses' rash invasion of Egypt, which event must have 
caused much suffering to his Jewish subjects. Consent 
was finally obtained from Darius to complete the temple, 
and it was finished about 515 B. C, and with this the 
restoration may be regarded as complete. 

1 Ezra ii, 63. 1 Nehemiah vii, 7. 



THE JEWS. 



279 



Now occurs a long period of nearly sixty years which 
is passed over in silence. We can only conjecture as to 
the condition of things in Jerusalem during this period. 
We need not doubt but it was bad enough. We know 
that during all this time no one had courage to rebuild 
the walls and gates of Jerusalem. The relations between 
the Jews and the Idumeans, Samaritans, and other 
nations, must have been far from pleasant much of the 
time. There is every indication that the settlement was 
languishing. Such was the state of things when Ezra 
appeared on the scene. 

Nearly seventy-five years passed away since the first 
colony under Zerubbabel went back to Jerusalem. A 
great many Jews still remained in Babylon. In many 
cases they were numerous enough to form compact and 
respected communities. They included the remnants of 
many of the noblest of the people who had formerly 
been carried away captives. Amongst them were learned 
men, men of wealth, and men who had risen to positions 
of honor and influence in the Persian kingdom. Amongst 
this number was Ezra, a descendant of the priestly house 
of Aaron. He seems to have been noted for his piety, 
wisdom, and learning. He was also a favorite with the 
court. The condition of affairs in Jerusalem seems to 
have fallen very low. The court at Babylon deemed it 
advisable to send some one there with powers of a judge — 
one acquainted both with Persian law and the law of 
Moses. They, accordingly, chose for this purpose Ezra. 

Ezra recognized that what they needed at Jerusalem 
as much as anything was able citizens. He succeeded 
in inducing a large number of Jews to return with him. 
He was also empowered to make a collection throughout 
the Persian Empire for the benefit of the temple at J eru- 



280 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



aalem. Royal favor even went further than this, and 
gave him a grant from the royal treasury for this pur- 
pose, and directed Persian representatives in Syria to 
honor his requisitions for money and supplies to a still 
greater extent. This now colony arrived in Jerusalem 
About 4o7 B. C, and was the beginning of better times. 

Arrived at Jerusalem, and commencing his duties, 
Ezra found himself confronted by a momentous question. 
He was informed that the Jews had intermarried to a 
very considerable extent with the various nations with 
which the little community was surrounded. His grief 
at this discovery was great, but he conceived it to be the 
duty of the people to put away these wives, and it was 
accordingly done. The book of Ezra gives us a record 
of his services for but one year, but his labors extended 
over a very long period. lie took an active part in 
reforming the temple worship, and took steps to publicly 
instruct the people in the Scriptures. An interesting 
description of the religious services at this time is con- 
tained in the seventh chapter of Nchemiah. 

Ezra was the priest and judge of the people. He 
was followed twelve years later by Nehemiah, upon whom 
the king bestowed new privileges. The position he held 
at the court of Persia was one of great responsibility in 
an Oriental government, that was: cup-bearer to the 
king. He learned, in an interview with some travelers, 
how defenseless Jerusalem was, with its fallen walls, ex- 
posed to the insults of surrounding people, and the sad 
state of the people generally. This news affected him 
greatly, so much so that the king noticed his sad bear- 
ing, and inquired the cause of the same. This led to his 
appointment as governor of Jerusalem, with power to 
rebuild the walls. It required a brave, energetic, and 



THE JEWS. 



281 



discreet man to combat the heavy obstacles thrown in 
his way by the jealousies of the Samaritans and sur- 
rounding peoj)le. Nehemiah seems to have been just the 
right man in the right place. 

The walls were finally rebuilt about the year 445 
B. C, and we are presented with a picture of a fully 
restored people. Their city was rebuilt and fortified, 
their worship re-established, and the people once more 
raised to the status of a nation, though but a weak and 
feeble one, and their territory but a small part of what 
it once had been, and themselves under the rule of the 
Persians. 

This is as far as the Old Testament history takes 
them, and this is as far as we think it best to trace their 
history. There is much that is of interest in their sub- 
sequent history, but not much aid to us in understand- 
ing the Bible, except as it would throw light on the 
prophecies of Daniel, and this is treated of in other parts 
of this volume. The time we have followed them in 
history embraces about fifteen hundred years. We have 
traced them from a feeble beginning, through many years 
of persecution, to the triumphant days of David and Sol- 
omon, when they were fairly entitled to be called one of 
the great nations of antiquity; then we have followed 
them through the long decline, the night of despair, and 
now leave them, where the Old Testament leaves them, a 
chastened and repentant people, but a shadow of their 
former greatness, restored to their ancient lands 



282 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



©H^ISIPIANIITY AND OTHEI^ RELIGIONS. 



KLIGION is the moral link that hinds man 
most closely with his God — the spiritual gar. 
den where the creature walks in companionship 
with his Maker. This sentiment is the highest 
that man is capable of cherishing, since it binds him to 
a being, fitted as no other being is to impart to the soul 
the highest moral grandeur that created beings can enjoy. 
It is the upper window of the soul, which opens into the 
clear, radiant light of God's eternal home. Its influence 
in every department of the mind is salutary and holy, 
no faculty can rise to its most exalted state without the 
sanctifying power of this sentiment. The highest beauty 
of the sonl. the finishing touch of character, the sweetest 
charm of life, will be given by due attention to this, the 
first and last duty. 

All natural results are spontaneous. The diamond 
sparkles without effort, and the flowers open naturally 
beneath the summer rain. Religion is also a natural 
thing — as spontaneous as it is to weep, to love, or to 
rejoice. There is not a heart but has its moments of 
longing — yearning for something better, nobler, holier 
than it know r s now. This bespeaks the religious aspira- 
tions of every heart. As it is now, so it has been in all 
time. Constituted as the human heart is, men can not 
help pondering over the great mysteries of their being, 
and to seek some explanation of the universe they see 
around them. This longing which men have always felt 




THE WIDOW'S MITE. 



\ 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 285 



has found expression, over a large part of the world, in 
some one of several systems of theoretic truth concerning 
God and men, and their duties to Him. These systems 
are called religions. An examination of them, and a 
comparison of some of their essential points, may be 
important. 

A religion is the sum of the truths relating to God 
and men that earnest minds, assisted, as such minds 
always are, by the being we call God, arrive at. Any 
system of religion, that has prevailed for any length of 
time, and has secured many followers, must have some 
points of truth, for they must successfully meet some felt 
want in the human heart. Men were made "to seek after 
the Lord." This is a result of their moral and mental 
nature. They feel a need of some object in whom they 
may trust. Paul brings out this idea when addressing a 
heathen audience, who were, as he says, very much given 
to religious worship. He tells thein "that God hath 
made of one blood all nations to dwell on all the face of 
the earth ; . . . that they should seek God, if haply 
they might feel after Him and find Him, though he be 
not very far from each one of us." Men are made to 
"feel after God, if haply they may find Him." Men are 
the offspring of God, made in His image. We should, 
therefore, expect to find something common in their 
religions. This expectation is strengthened by the belief 
which we have, that God is not far from any one, but is 
near to help them find Him. This was as true several 
thousands of years ago as it is to-day ; as true among 
the millions of India as the inhabitants of Palestine. 

When men with little traditional knowledge of God 
begin to feel after Him, they are influenced by one or 
both of two desires. When they see the world of things 



286 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



around tlicm, sun, moon, sky, stars, the land and water, 
animals and themselves, they long to know the cause; 
a cause other than the visible. That which is seen is 
temporal, and men seek after the unseen and the eter- 
nal. The other desire is to satisfy some longing" for some 
object of religious adoration. Most early religions find 
this object in the heavenly bodies, or in some beneficent 
form of animal life. Or if they think deeper, they see 
God through them or behind them. To sec God in 
every thing is Polytheism, which means many gods; 
but to imagine that every thing we see is a part of God 
is Pantheism. 

All religious activity directly tends to morality. 
This is the natural tendency of religion — to make men 
better in all human relations, as well as in their wor- 
ship, but when perverted, much of it tends to immoral- 
ity. This is seen in all religions — the purest and high- 
est as well as the low and coarcst, but not in the same 
degree. Some of the forms of worship of the Midianites 
and Moabites, of Canaan, and, indeed, of all idolatrous 
tribes, tended to produce unchaste, impure lives. This 
is a constant tendency of perverted religion to which 
Christianity is no exception, as it is a simple historical 
fact that some of the heretical sects lapsed into gross 
licentiousness ; and but recently persons, claiming to be 
perfect, have accepted the idea of having spiritual wives. 
The horrors of the Inquisition were sanctioned by a per- 
verted religion. At a later time the burning of witches 
was thought to be in conformity with the religion of 
Christ. As Christians, we may say that all such acts 
are inconsistent with the first and deepest principles of 
Christianity. Perhaps it may be true that all the cruel 
and vicious things done in the name of any religion were 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 287 

really at war with the fundamental principles of that 
religion. 

BRAHMINISM. 

A religion whose origin is lost in the night of time, 
and that may be called one of the great religions of the 
world, is Brahminism. When the Aryan tribes first 
reached India is not clearly known. It seems clear that 
they came from the west — from Central Asia. The rich 
plains of India were then occupied by tribes of men 
every way inferior to the Aryan invaders. They were 
speedily conquered, and reduced to servitude. A system 
of religion was developed by this conquering race — 
exactly when and how are not well understood. They 
have their sacred books. Most of them are hymns and 
prayers, written in the form of poetry, and beginning 
about fifteen hundred years before Christ — as early as 
any of the books in our Bible. These sacred hymns are 
called the Veda. 

They are addressed to various devas, or divinities, such 
as Indra, Nitra, Varuna, Ushas, Agni, etc., who seem, at 
first sight, to be personifications or deifications of the 
phenomena and forces of nature. If this were true, we 
might say that this early religion was worshiping nature 
in the guise of many gods, or polytheistic nature wor- 
ship. Some have questioned whether back of all this 
there was not a dim idea of some one God. Some pas- 
sages in the Vedic hymns seem to show a unity behind 
all the different objects. Thus one writer says: "There 
is but one, though the poets call him by many names. 
They call him Indra, Nitra, Varuna, Agni; then he is 
the beautiful winged Garutmut. That which is, and is 
one, the wise name in divers manners." It is not what 



288 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



the world is so much as what it is not that starts the 
mind to feel after God. "The things that arc seen are 
temporal. Our life is a vapor, that appeareth for a little 
while and then vanishes away." 

Brahminism sees God in everything, or behind every- 
thing. It regards the visible universe the substance of 
God, but does not make God simply the whole universe. 
The most ignorant idolater that bows down to a stone 
or block regards it as something more than a mere stone 
or block. He connects with it something that the eye 
can not see nor the hands handle. 80, in this manner 
we can understand their conception of the visible uni- 
verse as representing God. and yet not being really God. 
They sum up their idea of God this way: "A wise man 
must annihilate all objects of sense, and contemplate 
continually the one existence, which is like space. 
J >r.i!i ma is without dimensions, quality, character, or 
distinction." 

Here we see at once the reason for the great gulf 
between Brahminism and Christianity. It is in their 
conception of God. Wc have seen that an abuse of 
Christianity may lead to impurity, but a belief in Brah- 
minism necessarily leads to such a state. If God has no 
character, He sustains the same relation to vice that He 
does to virtue, and is as pleased with those who disre- 
gard all obligations as with the most obedient. Indeed, 
their idea of God is, in effect, that He does all that is 
done, since it contemplates onl} r the One Existence. So, 
when men do an act, it must follow that God does it. 
When Christians act impurely or cruelly, they are not 
consistent with their religion, but when Brahmins do 
these things they are consistent with their religion. 

The God Christianity sees is a God of thought, of 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 289 

wisdom, order, of righteousness, and a God who is spirit, 
mind. While it may see Him in all nature, it conceives 
of Him as distinct from the material visible universe. 
In the pains, sins, and discord of men, Christianity sees 
not God acting directly, but the results of violations of 
moral laws, and the necessary effects of natural laws which 
bear down on men and animals. Nor does Christianity 
conceive of God as simply keeping these laws in force by 
directly willing that they continue. God acts under lim- 
itation ; He can not cause that a body both exist and not 
exist at the same time; nor can He create a being who 
shall be responsible for his choices who is not free in 
them. When such a being sins, he does what God 
wishes him not to do, and something that is not, on the 
whole, a good, but an evil. 

Brahminism conceives of all acts as alike pleasing to 
God, and as His acts, since He is the only being in 
existence. Christianity teaches freedom in all moral acts. 
Brahminism teaches the doctrine of necessity. Brah- 
minism favors no struggle against any natural impulses 
or desires, and fosters a fatalistic contentment with 
things as they are, while Christianity teaches one to deny 
himself, and strive to enter the abode of the blessed. 
Brahminism teaches that impulses carry with them a 
divine sanction, and that in yielding to nature one is 
yielding to God. 

Brahminism led to the creation of caste, that arbi- 
trary distinction among men. The whole system of caste 
is an attempt to substitute artificial and accidental 
distinction for natural ones. Christianity recognizes all 
men as brethren standing on one platform, and the only 
recognized distinctions are such as result from natural 
differences, energy, and worth. 



290 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Brahmin ism teaches an elaborate system of cere- 
monial observances, and imposing sensuous rites. This 
system is not found in the earlier and simple Vedic 
period. In that period there was a natural and a child- 
like devotion; its prayers, hymns, and songs were 
exceedingly simple. "The number of sacrifices, and 
sacrilices of all kinds," we are told, gradually increased 
in India "in the post-vedic period, and the greater the 
number of sacrifices, and the more elaborate the ritual, 
the greater became the need for a complete organization 
of priests." As to its results on the systems of caste, 
we are told: "Instead of teaching them to look on their 
dark and hopeless lot as a thing for which they can seek 
higher consolation, or an injustice against which it is a 
right to struggle, this religion only gathers over it a 
more terrible darkness by making that lot itself an ordi- 
nance of God. In these and other ways, we can perceive 
how the system of caste involves the worst of all wrongs 
to humanity — that of hallowing evil by the authority 
and sanction of religion." 

BUDDHISM. 

This religion was proclaimed at first by one indi- 
vidual, in a land where Brahminism had prevailed for 
one thousand years. This man made his appearance 
somewhere in the sixth century before Christ. His 
name was Gautama, but he came to be called Buddha, 
meaning the enlightened. He was a son of the rajah of 
the Sakyas, an Aryan tribe of Central India. He was 
evidently a very intelligent man, and original in his 
thoughts. He had a reflective mind, and much given to 
speculation. He founded a system of religion. It was 
both a return to the early Vedic religion of his country- 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 



291 



men, and an advance upon it into a higher spiritual life. 
Within two hundred years of the death of its founder, 
or about the era of Alexander the Great, this relieion 
became the religion of India. Alone of all the heathen 
religions, its disciples conceived it to be their duty to try 
and spread its teachings among the people of the sur- 
rounding nations. So missionaries went forth, spreading 
this religion far and wide among the Asiatic nations. 

They went south to Ceylon, which still remains a 
stronghold of Buddhism; north and east to Kashmir 
and Thibet ; and to the Chinese Empire, where Buddhism 
early claimed an equality with the older system of 
Confucius. Japan also embraced Buddhism. In India, 
it is true, this religion gave place to a modified Brah- 
minisin; but in general the conquests of Buddhism have 
been more extended and more lasting than those of any 
other religion, Christianity not excepted. At the present 
day, twenty-four centuries after the birth of its founder, 
Buddhism is, nominally at least, the religion of five 
hundred millions of the human race, approaching nearly 
to one-half of all men. 

There is no rational accounting for this wonderful 
spread and lasting hold of a religion that is destitute of 
every idea that has lent, or that can be conceived to 
lend, to any system, its power over human hearts. As 
a religion, it seems to deny the existence of God. It 
refuses to man the hope of immortality. It teaches that 
existence is wretchedness, that the highest happiness 
attainable on the earth is in the extinction of all natural 
desires and affections. The only heaven it promises is 
final annihilation. It does not promise the gratification 
of desires, and by this hope draw men into action. It 
does not present any cheap way of escape from the 



292 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



stings of conscience for past sins. Its condition of 
salvation is the giving up of all the pleasures most men 
care for. The rewards it oilers for a life of self-denial 
are siu-h as men naturally shrink from. To the few, 
those most faithfully meeting its claims, it oilers simply 
annihilation, the loss of all conscious existence. Those 
who fail of this blessing are doomed to a long series of 
existence, either as human beings or as animals. It thus 
makes no appeal to that which is highest and purest, 
nor to that which is base — neither to the deepest 
spiritual instincts, nor to the low, selfish impulses of the 
human heart. 

But very little is known of Buddha's life. lie seems 
to have wearied of the world, and to have searched for 
spiritual rest. lie tried to find this in philosophy; this 
failing, he tried the effect of subjecting his body to all 
sorts of penances. lie tried this six years before aban- 
doning it. lie then gave himself up to prayer and medi- 
tation, works of piety and gentleness. At a time wholly 
unexpected, the secret of his own spiritual freedom and 
of the world's regeneration came to him. The great 
truth he learned was that salvation was not to be 
obtained by outward penances and sacrifices, but by 
inward renunciation and denial of self. This is certainly 
an important truth. We are permitted to hope that the 
Divine Spirit helped him to it. Blessedness consists not 
in outward conditions, but in inward character. It is to 
be sought not in a future heaven, but both here and here- 
after; wherever it may be enjoyed, in every stage of 
existence, it results from overcoming all selfish desires 
and passions. 

If we look for the elements of success in Buddhism 
we must give some influence to the personal character 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 



293 



of its founder, his freedom from ambition, and his great 
goodness. Another element of power was the high 
morality that he taught. The great difficulty with the 
older forms of religion in India was the separation of 
morality from the religion. Buddha taught that the way 
to reach blessedness was simply that of inward purifica- 
tion and moral greatness. Outside of Christianity, no 
religion which the world has ever seen has so strongly 
insisted that morality and duty are inseparably connected 
with it. Christianity, as taught by Christ and His 
apostles, alone exceeds in its morality Buddhism. 

It was in advance of Judaism, not in its conception 
of God, but in its morality. Buddha taught that "anger, 
drunkenness, deception, these constitute un cleanliness ; 
not the eating of flesh." "Neither abstinence, nor going- 
naked, nor shaving the head, nor a rough garment; nei- 
ther offerings to priests nor sacrifices to the gods . . . 
will cleanse a man." The importance placed on morality, 
as taught, not by dogmas, nor sacerdotal observances, 
but by the conscience and the spiritual nature of man, 
was one source of its power. Some extracts from their 
sacred writings are of great interest: "Never in the 
world does hatred cease by hatred ; hatred always ceases 
by love; this is nature." "Let no man think lightly of 
sin, saying in his heart, It can not overtake me." "Let 
us live happily, not hating those who hate us." "Let us 
overcome anger by kindness, evil by good." 

If we seek to know more about this system, it is nec- 
essary to inquire a little more as to what they mean by 
their heaven of existence. They express it by the word 
Nirvana; it seems to mean annihilation, the loss of all 
conscious existence. But Buddhist scholars differ as to 
its meaning. Some think that it means a state of com- 

18 



294 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



plete blessedness, in which there is no struggle against 
desire — all is peace; and the word annihilation is not 
only a later term, but is a wrong word to use, since it 
expresses a wrong meaning. It is probable the word is 
differently used by different sects of this great religion. 
It certainly seems sometimes to mean a state in which 
one neither cares nor wishes for anything he has not. 
If a soul attains this state even before the death of the 
body, it is then said to be in Nirvana, and ceases to wish 
or act, or even to live; and to such an one when the 
body dies there is no longer any life, there is no exist- 
ence, there is no trouble; and this is blessedness, this is 
the heaven of Buddhism. 

When we reflect on the wonderful spread of Bud- 
dhism, and the hold it has maintained on the millions of 
Asia, it seems necessary to assume that the power of the 
system was in something deeper than the form of it. 
May we not think that such minds as Buddha, while 
they seemed even to themselves to think of escape from 
a world that was unreal, and a life that was vanity, did 
really seek after participation in that Infinite Life which 
is. and which abideth for ever and ever, and while they 
seemed to ignore God they were seeking to lean on an 
Infinite One they had not learned to call Father, and, 
because they could not bring Him before them in the 
terms of the understanding, seemed to disown His exist- 
ence? AVhilc Buddhism seems to promise nothing but 
annihiliation to its votaries, may we not think it was 
not this that drew to it so many millions of men, but 
the greater, even though it be the unspoken, hope that 
"when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, 
and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 295 

be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is 
swallowed up in victory?" 

CONFUCIANISM. 

Confucianism is that form of religious worship that 
constitutes the state religion of China, and was estab- 
lished about five centuries before Christ. If we exam- 
ine a little into ancient history we will be struck with 
the fact that at about the sixth century before Christ the 
world experienced a great religious aAvakening. In all 
nations men were feeling after God. At this time Con- 
fucianism was established in China, and remains to-day 
the dominant religion of nearly four hundred million men. 
About this time, also, Buddhism was established in India, 
and, in all its main features, was embraced by about 
one-third of the human race. The Persian religion, to 
which we will soon refer, arose about this time. About 
this time, also, such of the Jews as wished to return to 
the land God had given their fathers were permitted to 
do so, and a new era in their religion was inaugurated. 

So far as Confucianism goes, contrasted with Brah- 
minism and Buddhism, it is an exchange from the 
fervent poetry of religion to its prose. It is an inter- 
esting problem, and one not easily solved, why a creed 
so passionless, so dead, and so cold, became so powerful 
twenty-five hundred years ago, and is, to this day, the 
religion of so many. Why is it that a system, which in 
intellectual vigor, in pietistic fervor, and in poetic beauty 
sinks so far below the system of the Brahmins and the 
Buddhists, should yet have maintained its empire where 
both the others have been compelled to yield the ground? 
The religion of China is the embodiment of conservatism. 
In this respect it is in strong contrast with all other 



2 i i 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



religions. Christianity looks forward to a glorious man- 
ifestation of divine power here on the earth, far surpass* 
ing anything that has yet been seen. Judaism is looking- 
for the coming of her Messiah. The Persian recog- 
nizes a restless conflict which is to terminate in the 
triumph of the good. Buddhism longs for a great change 
which it calls Nirvana; and Brahminism is a changing 
cycle. 

But the believer in Confucius awaits no such coming 
good. The kingdom has been attained, the goal is won, 
the golden age is now in existence, and no change is 
looked for, or even hoped for. The history of China 
shows the effect of this belief. It has exerted a wonder- 
ful influence over the lives of its inhabitants. China has 
been invaded and conquered by barbarians, but it has 
marvelously assimilated its conquerors to its own civil- 
ization. Foreign religions have planted themselves on 
its soil; but Confucianism has gradually succeeded in 
drawing them nearer to itself. Buddhism was intro- 
duced from India, but its adherents are scarcely distin- 
guishable from the Confucians. China was an old country, 
with fixed institutions, when Confucius was born. Its 
development must have required long intervals of time. 
At that time China had books of cosmology, of history, 
of poetry, and books of ritual. It had its commerce, 
too. Its porcelain cups have been found in the ancient 
tombs of Egypt. 

In the early part of the sixth century before Christ, 
Confucius stood forth to answer the question: "What 
must we do to be saved?" We know but little about 
his life. He seems to have early turned his attention to 
religion. He did not attack the beliefs of his country- 
men. He, in effect, said to them, "I show you a more 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 



297 



excellent way." He did not tell them their belief in a 
god, superior to earthly power, was a delusion; their 
belief in immortality a dream, and their sacrifices a 
waste. He did tell them God was beyond their compre- 
hension, and that their future existence was something 
that they could not know, but there were some duties they 
could know. He called their attention to the world of 
duty. He said to them: " By this door men are to enter 
the kingdom of blessedness. Doing what is seen to be 
right will bring you to the desired goal." 

Confucius substituted morality for theology. He did 
not deny the facts of theology, but he did deny that they 
could be known. He taught that they were beyond the 
reach of human knowledge. His system was a system 
of morality for this world, and might be called a system 
of political economy. He recognized the rights of rulers, 
parents, husbands, and first-born sons, as rulers; and the 
duties of subjects, children, wives, and younger children, 
of obedience. He taught that rulers must rule rightly, 
and subjects must be free to serve. In the dealings of 
friend with friend, he states substantially the golden rule 
of Christianity. It does not lessen the value of Chris- 
tianity to teach that this rule was taught six hundred 
years before Christ taught it. To teach that the great 
principles of morality were original in Christianity is 
unwise. 

The crowning glory of Christianity is that its moral- 
ity is that which the Creator teaches through man's 
mental and moral nature. The sense in which the 
morality of Christianity is new, is that the motives for 
practicing morality are new and higher than those 
usually given. It is probable that the golden rule of 
Confucius was, to his mind, not a moral principle at all, 



298 



THE BIBLE COM PAN ION. 



but a political maxim, and was given, not to secure piety 
towards God, but to help citizens; in their intercourse 
wnii one another; not as men in respect to their duty 
towards God, but as citizens in a wise effort to succeed in 
business. 

Confucius was not indebted for success to anything in 
the spirit of his age, for this was against his system. 
Nor was he indebted to any accident of birth; he was an 
ordinary boy; he was not of royal birth, nor a son of 
wealthy parents. Princes wore not his patrons. No 
miracles were wrought by his hands during his life. His 
hand was against others, and their hands were against 
him. Alter his death and burial, by the banks of the 
Loo River, his countrymen awoke to the fact that his 
teachings were important. Even then it was not the 
man, but his teachings, that took hold of them. Chris- 
tianity is the worship of Christ. Confucianism is not the 
worship of Confucius. 

Since none of these things account for the wonderful 
success of this teacher, there remains oidy this explana- 
tion: its success was owing to the truths he taught. 
Indeed, no system of faith can hold men, except as they 
contain elements of truth. Men may hold many and 
great errors, but they hold them for the truths associated 
with them. Mere errors can not enchain the minds and 
hearts of men. Confucianism, to the world that receives 
it, must bring some healing balm. It meets some felt 
want of their being ; it satisfies some longing of their 
nature. The world that Confucius met was one that had 
abandoned itself to speculative dreams. Not only the 
Brahmin, the Buddhist, and the Parsee, but even the 
Chinese, were given over to speculation. Overlooking 
the things that might be known of God, human destiny, 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 



299 



and duty, there was an effort to see things that are 
unknowable to men in this world. 

These dreamers and seekers after the unknown heard 
his message: "Do the will and ye shall know of the doe- 
trine;" and this was a benediction to them. To men 
who had forgotten or ignored life's practical duties, this 
recall to duty had healing on its wings. When he was 
asked whether he thought there was any efficacy in sac- 
rifices to the spirit of dead ancestors, his reply was sub- 
stantially this: "If you have not yet realized your rela- 
tionship to the souls of the living, how can you recognize 
your relationship to the spirits of the departed ?" This is 
almost a forestatement of the question: "He that loveth 
not his brother, whom he hath seen, how shall he love 
God, whom he hath not seen?" The way to faith in the 
unseen verities is not by theorizing about them, but by 
doing good. The man who lives for his brother man, 
and fulfills the duties he owes to other persons, is find- 
ing himself in the very act of losing himself, and is 
reaching the evidence of his immortality through this 
self-sacrificing process. We need not, however, affirm 
that Confucius saw this truth in its entirety. 

At this time men held very gloomy views about the 
world. It was accounted very bad. The Brahmin re- 
garded the world as an illusion and a cheat. The Bud- 
dhist held existence to be a curse, and his heaven was 
ceasing to be. These views inevitably led to the idea 
that it was not worth while to try and improve it. The 
best thing man could do was to pray and wait for death, 
the great emancipator, to bless them. Into such a world 
Confucius' doctrines came as a great blessing. He told 
them that the chief end of existence was not mainly to 
wait for a future existence, but to beautify and glorify 



THE 15IRLE COMPANION. 



the life that now is. He taught the necessity of tending 
to the discharge of present duties. 

It must be admitted that China has not realized the 
great good that might have been hoped for from this 
system of religion. It is too cold and inert. If China 
is to be exalted and glorified in the future, it must be 
by accepting the great principles of Christianity — that 
is, a life rendered noble here on earth by a high and 
pure morality, in which the individual soul is assisted 
by the mighty energies of the Divine Spirit; a morality 
which is founded on love — that love that is the essence 
of all duty, the fulfillment of the moral law, and the 
pressing forward 1 1 1 that glorious future life which is the 
continuation of the spiritual life begun on earth, and 
which is an ev< r-growing likeness to the Infinite One 
through the long ages to come. 

ZOROASTER ISM. 

This was the religion of Persia. It is regarded as a 
natural growth from the religious notions of the Aryan 
races. Almost all of the leading dominant races of 
to-day are descendants of the Aryans. Those barbarian 
tribes that, at the very beginning of history, overthrew 
the Roman empire, and founded on its ruins the nations 
of mediaeval Europe, were all Aryan. The Greeks and 
Romans were themselves Aryan, who at a still earlier 
day had wandered into Europe. Some time in the dim 
night of the past, before the dawn of history, these tribes 
were living together in Western Asia. Their gods were 
the sky and sun, the moon and the bright planets, 
Tin y separated from each other. The Hindoos went 
eastward, and developed the religion of India. The 
development among the Persians, who remained near 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 



301 



the ancestral seat, took the form of dualism — that is, 
they think they can trace everything to the action of 
two opposing forces. 

Two classes of gods are supposed to exist — one good 
and beneficent, who created light, winds, or spirits, and 
all that is good; the other created darkness, matter, and 
all things evil. This religion teaches there is a constant 
conflict between the good and bad powers. There seems 
to be a natural foundation for this religion. Light and 
darkness seem to contend for the possession of the earth. 
The sun rises, ascends to the zenith, and then goes down 
into darkness. The beasts of the field are warring 
against each other. There is in man a conflict between 
his desires and his conscience; sometimes man is led by 
his lower desires, and, again, his conscience seems to 
triumph. 

The date of the birth of Zoroaster — if there were such 
a man — is unknown ; it was some time before the sixth 
century B. C. This religion naturally gave rise to very 
foolish notions. Matter was impure; any part of the 
body separated from it was unclean. Hence, to blow the 
fire with the breath, or to let a hair fall on the earth, 
was sinful. The parings of the nails must be buried; 
hair to be buried, also, in a place twenty paces from a 
fire and thirty from water. Practically, this religion 
reduced its followers to the worship of such animals as 
dogs, hedgehogs, and beavers. For instance, man- 
slaughter was deserving of ninety stripes, but to give 
bad food to a shepherd dog brought two hundred; kill- 
ing a house-dog, seven hundred; killing a shepherd dog, 
eight hundred. He who killed a hedgehog deserved one 
thousand lashes in this life and perdition in the next. 
Killing a beaver was a terrible affair; it could only be 



302 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



condoned by killing ten thousand land frogs; the same 
number each of water frogs, snakes, ants, and the differ- 
ent kinds of vermin. In addition, the unfortunate 
beaver-slayer had to equip a priest, a warrior, a hus- 
bandman, and to receive ten thousand stripes. 

This religion had no temples before Buddhism spread 
into its strongholds. The influence of this system of 
faith over the Persians tended greatly to make them a 
nation of soldiers. We know how they overrun Western 
Asia. Before their assaults the mighty empire of Baby- 
lonia crumbled into dust. In this respect it was very 
different from the influence of Brahminism over the 
Hindoos. The religion of these latter made them an 
easy prey for any spoiler. At the time of Cyrus the 
Persian religion made its greatest advance. Then it 
was that Babylon was overthrown. The kindness shown 
to the Jews was largely owing to the met that Judaism, 
like the religion of the Persian conquerors, was opposed 
to the idolatrous practices of Babylon. 

This religion has not held its own among the relig- 
ions of the world. Buddhism and Christianity, or rather 
some of the sects of Christianity, have made great in- 
roads on it. Mohammedism has, however, done more to 
destroy it. In 642 A. D. the Mohammedans conquered 
Persia, and fastened their religion upon the country. 
At present only a few burn the sacred fire and offer the 
required sacrifice. In Bombay and Surat, comprising a 
population of about one hundred thousand, arc about all 
that are left of this once great religion. These people 
are now called Parsees. They do not desire converts. 
They refuse to admit any to their numbers that are not 
of pure Parsee blood. Xo Parsee is known to be a beg- 
gar. They resemble the Jews in this respect; though 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 303 

firmly clinging to the religion of their fathers, they are 
exiles from the land of their birth. This religion ex- 
erted considerable of an influence over Judaism, and in 
a favorable direction. 

The Jews, after the exile, were freed from that ten- 
dency to lapse into idolatry that cursed their fathers. 
It also affected Mohammedism favorably. Some of the 
best sayings of the Koran are taken from the religious 
literature of Persia. Its influence on Christianity has 
also been great, but harmful. Manes was a Persian 
magi, or philosopher. When he came into the Christian 
Church he brought his philosophy or Gnosis with him. 
From this rose some sects known as the Manichean and 
Gnostic, that did much to corrupt the simplicity of the 
Christian doctrine. The Persian idea that matter is sin- 
ful came into the Church. Not only sects that were 
regarded as heretical were perverted by it, but some 
teachers, as St. Augustine, who was a Manichean before 
he was a Christian, held many notions that were derived 
from Persia. We can trace to this influence some relig- 
ious ideas of the past. 

MOHAMMEDISM OR ISLAMISM. 

This is the only religion, that from the numbers 
embracing it deserves to be called great, that has arisen 
since the death of Christ. It arose in Arabia, and is 
largely the work of one man, Mohammed. We can 
gather some facts of his life. He was born in the 
province of Mecca. He was a member of the most 
illustrious of the many tribes of Arabs, the tribe of 
Koreish, and of the gens or family of Hashem. At this 
time his country was subject to the Christian princes of 
Abyssinia. He was the only son of his father Abdallah. 



304 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



lie lost both of his parents at an early age. He grew 
Up in poverty. By marriage he became wealthy. His 
traveling was confined to visiting the fairs at Bostra 
and Damascus. 

The faith he proclaimed in the Koran, under the 
name of Islam, contained, in one short sentence, one 
eternal truth, and one unsupported fiction. That sen- 
tence, the keystone of his religion, is: "There is only 
one God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." 
The truth about God he probably learned from the 
.lews, who were somewhat numerous at Mecca, Ever 
since the captivity at Babylon, they remained true to 
the idea of the unity of God. Mohammed was also 
familiar with the Persian religion, and derived some 
[ arts of the Koran from that source. His acquaintance 
with Christianity was not extensive. He could not read 
the Christian scriptures in Greek, nor in any translation 
then made. The Christians he saw were at dispute 
among themselves. They were really worshipers of 
images. The teachings in reference to the Trinity were 
almost the same as teaching there were three gods, and 
some of the sects really taught this doctrine, and some 
had even given to the Virgin Mary the attributes of a 
goddess. 

Two years after the death of Mohammed, his sayings 
and writings, which he claimed to have received as 
revelations from God, at various times, were published 
by Abubeker his successor, and revised by the Caliph 
Othman. Mohammed rests the truth of his mission on 
the merits of his book, and challenges both men and 
angels to immitate the beauties of a single page, and 
affirms that only God could dictate his incomparable 
work. It is claimed that this beauty and grandeur is 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHEE RELIGIONS. 



305 



such that it can not bo presented in a translation. This 
is a mere Oriental exasperation. The Koran contains 
nothing equal to Job, Homer, or Demosthenes. 

The religion of Mohammed is a strange mixture. It 
teaches the unity of God. It also teaches fatalism — 
what is to be, must be; it can not be changed. It 
regards Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, and 
Mohammed, as the six revelators of the will of God. 
Of these six, their importance is in the order of their 
appearance — Adam is the first and weakest, Mohammed 
the last and greatest. Prayers, fastings, and alms are 
made religious duties. The Koran teaches a literal 
resurrection of the body. This resurrection is followed 
by a judgment, which presents a tedious likeness to a 
human trial at a court of law. The Koran consigns all 
who do not accept its teachings to endless destruction. 
Mohammed regarded himself as forbidden to pray for 
his mother, who died without accepting the faith. 

The Koran appeals directly to the sensual feelings of 
its followers, and promises them rewards in a sensual 
paradise. Mohammed himself, of all the great religious 
teachers we have been considering, led a voluptuous life. 
He practiced polygamy, and taught his followers to do 
the same. He allowed himself greater liberty in this 
direction than he did his followers. By the fiction of 
special revelations, he silenced all criticism of his course. 
The heaven of Mohammedans consists in the enjoyment 
of perfumes, houris, pearls, diamonds, rich silks, and 
sensual pleasures. They teach the literal resurrection 
of the body, and ask, What would be the use of such a 
resurrection if all the physical wants and pleasures were 
not to be enjoyed? 

We wonder, at the present day, when we read of the 



30G 



THE MRLK COMPANION. 



fierce, fanatical courage of Mohammedan soldiers. This 
is a natural result of their religious teaching. Mohami 
Hied taught, "The sword is the key of heaven and hell; 
a drop of blood shod in the cause of God, a night spent 
in .nans, is of more avail than two months of fasting and 
prayer ; whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven ; 
at the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent 
as vermilion, and odoriferous as musk, and the loss of 
his limbs shall be supplied with wings of angels and 
cherubim." Islam is the only religion that appeals to 
the animal and lower desires of men, that may be 
gratified in the future, as motives to secure obedience to 
it. Persons professing other religions, are not always 
tin ' to their religions; but no other religion presents 
Buch motives as Islam docs. No other presents the 
alternative of accepting it, or death to its conquered 
enemies, and no other makes war to extend its influence. 

JUDAISM. 

We have now spent some time in considering the 
outline of the great religions of the world, and are about 
ready to compare them with Christianity ; but we must 
first describe Judaism, which is not identical with Chris- 
tianity. Paul states the relations thus: "The law [Juda- 
ism] was our tutor to bring us to Christ, but after that 
the seed has come we are no longer under a tutor." 
Judaism was instituted by Moses, communicated to him 
by God at Mt. Sinai, and is not simply a religion, but 
also a civil code of laws. It need not be conceded that 
all this code was abstractly perfect or divinely given, or 
as binding through all time. Judaism was adapted to 
an 1 designed to keep the offspring of Jacob as a sepa- 
rate nation. Much of the legislation for this purpose 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 



307 



was local and temporary. It made few appeals through 
motives of future good. It was largely an outward and 
spectacular religion, depending largely on an outward 
service that struck the senses. 

The privileges of religion were to be obtained by the 
intervention of a priest, whereas Christianity makes each 
person his oavii priest. 1 Judaism requires a priest to offer 
sacrifices and make reconciliation and secure a pardon. 
Christianity, having made all its subjects priests, permits 
them to offer the sacrifices that are well pleasing to 
God. 2 Judaism makes many appeals to sensuous things — ■ 
the gorgeous robes of the high priest, the costly dis- 
play at the tabernacle and the temple, the multitude of 
animal sacrifices, and the employment of their blood. 
It is true, the more spiritual of the prophets and poets, 
such as David and Isaiah, represent the fact that God 
had no pleasure in such sacrifices, offered by men whose 
hands were "full of blood." 

We must constantly bear in mind that Judaism was 
given for a temporary system, and to men whose hearts 
were hard, and who would not obey the highest forms 
of truth. It was given to a people but imperfectly de- 
veloped, but just escaped from bondage of many years in 
Egypt. Given by God, it was, of course, the best relig- 
ion for them under the circumstances, but it contained 
many provisions which Christianity has annulled. After 
the exile Judaism was somewhat modified, and it has 
been further modified in the course of time since the 
existence of the Jews as a nation ceased. They are 
mostly still looking for their long promised Messiah. 
Some of them are hoping for a restoration to Palestine, 
which will probably never come. 

1 Revelation i, 6. s Hebrews xiii, 16. 



3< is 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



CHRISTIAN [TY. 

This is the religion founded by Jesus, tlie Christ of 
(iod, and developed and exemplified in the New Testa- 
ment, written by the apostles and those associated with 
the apostles. While the Xew Testament states what 
Christianity is, the Old Testament explains some parts 
of this system, and is important as an introduction to 
it. .Jesus was born in Bethlehem, near Jerusalem, nearly 
nineteen hundred years ago. I Lis birth and growth as a 
man was much like that of all men. He gathered some 
disciples, twelve of whom are called apostles. After 
three years of public teaching and ministering to the 
wants of men, He was crucified by the Roman authori- 
ties, at the instigation of the Jews. He arose from the 
dead on the third day, and was seen alive by many per- 
sons during an interval of forty days, when He was 
taken up out of the sight of his disciples,, and has been 
seen since by only two persons — Paul, on the road near 
Damascus, and John, on the island of Patmos. 

Christianity claims that, in some peculiar way, this 
man Jesus was united with the Divine Being, and that 
He is properly called, and regarded, and worshiped as 
God. Tt teaches that God is an intelligent, spiritual 
being, separated from all created things, and all exist- 
ence besides Himself, and yet imminent in all nature; 
that He is everywhere present, but invisible to man; 
that He is incomprehensible by men, yet known to be. 
Christianity teaches that this Being is a holy Being, 
by which is meant that He has always obeyed the moral 
law — the law of duty for all moral agents ; that He is 
righteous in the way that any being becomes and con- 
tinues righteous — by "doing righteousness." It teaches 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 309 



that He desires the well-being or happiness of all men, 
and always does what He can to secure the same. It 
furthermore teaches that God reveals Himself as the 
Holy Spirit — God helping men in all spiritual and moral 
ways. 

Christianity teaches that God made man in His own 
image, which is now generally understood to mean the 
likeness of God as an intelligent, free, moral, and end- 
lessly-existing Being, and has no reference to man's 
material form or character. Christianity teaches that, 
in morals, men are free. If they choose wrong, they 
sin and are guilty; if they choose as they should, they 
do right and are praiseworthy. It teaches that God 
wishes all men to be saved, and that the coming of 
Christ, the union of God with the man Jesus, was to 
help ; men. Christianity is designed as a universal 
religion. All men are brethren. Its morality is of the 
very highest kind. It requires men to love 1 others as 
themselves, and to love their enemies, and to forgive 
those who injure them on evidence of repentance. It is 
not claimed that all who call themselves Christians are 
true to their system, and it is admitted that, in the name 
of Christianity, great and frightful evils have been 
practiced. 

Christianity presents the most efficient and successful 
motives for a pure life. It gives the great fact that God 
wishes to secure the blessedness of all, and has entered 
into great sympathy with, and suffering for, men, to help 
them out of the evils of sin; and very greatly helps in 
the way of assisting men out of sin. It makes pardon 

iible on the easiest terms that it can be justly otfered, 

1 It is scarcely necessary to state the word love does not mean love of affection. 
It means to choose their well-being; to deal justly with them. 
19 



310 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



and presents the evils of wrong-doing in the strongest 
light — death, 1 and death continued until pardoned, and 
certain evils, the consequences of sin, that must be 
always endured. It promises lii'e — that is, blessedness — 
to those who believe in Christ, to those who have faith, 
to those who repent, and to those who love. These are 
only different words to express the same idea. Chris- 
tianity teaches the continued existence of the spirit of man, 
and the resurrection of the dead. 

The Christian should bear in mind the main points 
of each of these systems of religion, and see wherein 
Christianity surpasses them all. Brahminism has noth- 
ing akin to our conception of religion, except that God 
lies hack of every thing. Buddhism is a great step in 
advance. Some of the great truths of Christianity seem 
to have been revealed to the mind of Buddha; but 
there is no cheering hope of an immortal existence. 
Confucianism sees only the practical side of religion. 
The Persian philosophy is founded on an error, and it 
leads to ludicrous conclusions. Mohammedism teaches, 
indeed, that there is but one God, but what unworthy 
conceptions they have of that God! Judaism was the 
introductory to Christianity, which, looked at in any 
light, is the grandest system of religion that the world 
ever saw. 

It teaches the beauty and dignity of common and 
private life. It makes it valuable, not for the cares from 
which it frees us, but for the constant duties through 
which we may train the soul to perfect sympathy with the 
design of the Creator. It shows that the humblest lot 
posesses opportunities which require the energies of the 
most exalted virtues to meet and satisfy. It impresses 

1 Spiritual death ; condemnation. 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 



311 



upon us the solemn truth that life itself, however humble 
its condition, is always holy; that every moment has its 
duties and responsibilities, which Christian strength 
alone, the croAvn of power, can do and bear. It teaches 
that the simplest experience may become radiant with a 
heavenly beauty when hallowed by a spirit of constant 
love to God and man. 

Another of the lessons of Christianity is that of the 
inestimable worth of common duties, as manifesting the 
greatest principles. Christianity, which is always true 
to the heart, knows no abstract virtues; but virtues re- 
sulting from our wants, and useful to all. It bids us to 
strive after perfection, not by doing dazzling deeds, but 
by faithful performance of little duties. It shows us that 
the Christian hero will ennoble the humblest field of labor, 
that nothing is mean which can be performed as a duty, 
but that religion, like the touch of Midas, converts the 
humblest call of duty into spiritual gold. 



312 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



I^ISWOI^Y OP (©HI^ISTIANITY. 



EE religions of earth are many — of the celes- 
tial world there is only one. It can not be 
claimed that Christianity, in the dress it has 
worn among men, is identical with the religion 
of the saints made complete in the Paradise of the blest, 
It partakes of the imperfection of men. We may claim, 
however, that, taking all its history into consideration, 
this system of belief resembles the perfect religion more 
closely than any other that has prevailed among men. 
In this connection please note that, by Christianity, we 
do not moan those beliefs taught in the Scriptures, or as 
taught by the Divine Author. Christ's system, as it 
was in his mind, was faultless as it is presented in the 
New Testament, even with all the coloring it has received 
from the human channels through which it has passed, 
it is a much higher and more celestial system than any 
yet formulated from it by men. 

We use the word Christianity to express the theories 
held and the lives lived by those who are regarded as 
the followers of Christ. These theories have been nu- 
merous in the past, and are so to-day. Though these 
theories often differ in non-essential points, yet some 
very grave errors have been taught in the name of Chris- 
tianity, and most pernicious theories have been held to 
be the true doctrine. In some cases the system of 
belief was better than the lives of those who claimed to 
accept it; but, with others, the lives of its adherents 




THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



315 



were probably better than their theory. We wish to 
give an outline of the growth, development, and spread 
of these theories, and the ultimate results during the first 
fifteen centuries of our era. 

Our outline must, of necessity, be very brief and 
imperfect. We will take each century in its course, and 
see what were the main points of belief in the Christian 
world during that century. 

FIRST CENTURY. 

Nineteen hundred years ago the religion of the world 
was Paganism. Rome, then, at the zenith of her power, 
was a pagan government, and extended over most of the 
then known world. The state of religion in Palestine 
was certainly at a low ebb. The Jewish religion had 
largely degenerated into one of lifeless formalism. The 
three great sects, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the 
Essenes, were involved in endless disputes upon ques- 
tions of interpretations of the Scriptures. On one point 
only were they agreed — that is, that there was no hope 
of religious blessings for any other nation in the world 
except the Jews. It was when matters were in this state 
that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, and Chris- 
tianity arose. 

The fundamental beliefs of Christianity, wherein it 
agrees and where it disagrees with the other great 
religions' of the world, have been sufficiently set forth in 
the preceding chapter. At the time of Christ's death 
there were few willing to be known as His disciples. On 
the day of Pentecost a large number of devout men, 
Jews and proselytes, were at Jerusalem, from a wide 
extent of country. Of these three thousand accepted 
Christ as the Messiah. They did not regard this as 



316 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



turning away from the religion of their fathers. All the 
people, indeed, were looking for the Messiah, but they 
did not expect Him to come in the way Tie did come — 
in I he person of Jesus. They expected an all-conquering 
prince to arise and restore their nationality. 

On their return to their homes they would, of course, 
spread among their friends and acquaintances the news 
that the Messiah had come, and this did .something to 
prepare the way for the acceptance of Christianity when 
the first missionaries visited these localities. At first, 
this new religion spread rapidly. All its members were 
earnest and devoted, and were wonderfully assisted by 
the Boly Spirit, by God working on human minds by 
motives and great facts, seen and known by these teach- 
ers. It was what we, at the present day, would call a 
most wonderful revival, though it probably swept with 
greater force than any revival we know of. We read in 
the Bible: "The Lord added to them [the Church] day 
by day those that were being saved." 1 

While the commission given to the Church required 
them to go into the world and preach "the good tidings 
to the whole creation*' — to all men — even the apostles 
did not, for several years, fully perceive that Christ's 
salvation from sin was for any but the Jews. They could 
not so easily rid their mind of all the traditions of the 
past. Their idea was that men must become Jews before 
they could be helped out of death into life. After some 
eight years, by the aid of a vision, Peter saw that he 
might venture to tell a devout Roman that Christ's sal- 
vation was for him ; but he was under the necessity of 
explaining this matter more fully to the Church at Jeru- 
salem. This did not quite settle the subject, however, 

1 Acts ii, 47 (K. V.). 



HISTOEY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



317 



as some years later a council met at Jerusalem to con- 
sider this question. 

The Christian Church necessiatecl giving to some 
words a new, and to some extent a distinct, sense. The 
word supper was one of these. Christians were to cele- 
brate the Lord's Supper. Where there were a number 
of them that could meet together it was probably ob- 
served every Lord's Day, or first clay of the week. They 
adopted for this purpose a Greek word which usually 
means dinner, the heavy meal of the day being taken 
late in the clay. The new meaning given to this word 
made it mean taking a simple morsel of bread and a sip 
of the cup in remembrance of Christ. Love is another of 
the.se words. In the New Testament this does not mean 
a feeling of affection, but it has reference to the choices. 
It is the willingness to do just what the law of duty de- 
mands. Christianity exalts this to the most important 
Christian act. Baptism is still another of these words. 
Christianity took it from a common use and made it a 
religious word, exalting the intentions with which the 
act is performed above the mere outward act. 

Christianity at first was very simple. Those who 
embraced it were baptized — an outward, visible rite. It 
would not seem that they regarded the rite as esssential 
to their spiritual life, nor that it wrought any change in 
men. It was rather a committing of those who received 
it to the service of Christ, or a convenient criterion of 
membership in the Church ; a profession before the 
world that they accepted Christ as their Lord. Chris- 
tians did not cut loose from the service of Judaism for 
some time, yet they had separate gatherings of their own. 
The converts were not required to profess assent to many 
articles of belief. They accepted Christ as their Savior, 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



the members of the Church as brethren, practically obey- 
ing Christ's words: "All ye are brethren." 

Very early in the history of the Church the first day 
of the week was observed as the Christian Sabbath. 
Some of the churches, where there was a large number 
who had been followers of Moses, observed, in addition 
to the first day, also the seventh day. In Church gov- 
ernment there is little reason to doubt the Church con- 
sidered itself a brotherhood of equals. The Church, says 
Mosheim, " was therefore the assembly of the people, 
which chose rulers and teachers, or received them by a 
free and authoritative consent, when recommended by 
others. The same people rejected or confirmed, by their 
suffrages, the laws that were proposed by their rulers to 
the assembly; . . . passed judgments on the differ- 
ent subjects of controversy and discussion that arose in 
their community." 

The first century was one of great prosperity. Its 
early teachers enjoyed certain advantages for evangelical 
work. They could, at least many -of them, speak a lan- 
guage that was understood by many of the surrounding 
nations. Greek was understood by many scholars in all 
that region. And still more, as we read in Acts, they 
were miraculously assisted to understand and speak in 
foreign tongues. Then, the conditions of membership in 
in the churches were very simple. They accepted Christ 
as their Master, but did not much trouble themselves 
about doctrines that are too high for men. Such was the 
prosperity of the Church that, before the close of the first 
century, the gospel was preached in many cities of the 
Roman Empire, and in many localities outside of it. 

During this period, how r ever, the Church was assailed 
by enemies from without and from within. The enemies 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



319 



from without showed their power by means of persecu- 
tions. We have in another chapter traced the persecu- 
tions of this century; first from Judaism, then from the 
Roman civil power. 1 The internal enemies of the Church 
were many, and showed themselves in the corruption of 
doctrine. The conflicts of Christianity and paganism re- 
sulted in the victory of Christianity, but it did not escape 
unscathed. Some of the erroneous doctrines of the pagan 
world were being embraced by the Christian Church. 
Paul seems to have feared this, and wrote against it. 2 
But the mischief was wrought. 

The greatest evil came from the conflict of Chris- 
tianity and the religion of Persia. The peculiar points 
about that religion have been fully explained. 3 We must 
remember the peculiar idea of this system was that 
matter was in its very nature evil, and all the sin that 
men commit is to be charged against the body. Man 
was made up of the spirit, which was good, shut up or 
imprisoned in the body, which, being matter, was evil. 
Tho wise men of Persia were called magi, and their 
peculiar system of belief was called Gnosis, meaning 
knowledge or science. Some of the magi were converted 
to Christianity, but they brought their Gnosis along with 
them, and proceeded to expound this doctrine to the 
infant Church. 

The result may be foreseen : Gnostic sects arose. 
The minds of many Christians were mystified. They 
conceived that in some way this body of ours was very 
wicked, and consequently must be mortified. So they 
took to starving it, and retired into caves and desert 
lands. Idleness and poverty were very meritorious states, 
but celibacy was almost a holy life in itself. Thus, as 

1 Page 469. 2 Page 115. 3 Page 300. 



320 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



we approach the end of the first century, we find the 
Church greatly enlarged, but already possessed of many 
false notions, the result largely of its conflict with the 
religion of Persia. 

SECOND CENTURY. 

The spread of Christianity was rapid in this century 
also. It was carried into France, some parts of Gor- 
many, and into the island of Croat Britain. It is not 
probable that Paul, as asserted by tradition, had visited 
Britain or Spain in the first century. It prevailed 
extensively in the East as well; especially was this the 
case in Egypt and North Africa. In accounting for this 
diffusion we must notice the energy and faithfulness of 
the early missionaries of the cross, the wonderful influ- 
ence of the Spirit working with or by these men, and the 
comparative quiet that prevailed in the Roman Empire. 
It is not well to overlook the labors of men, or God's help. 
God works in all real advancement of truth and righteous- 
ness, but ordinarily He works through and with men. 

During most of this century "each Christian assembly 
was a little state, governed by its own laws, which were 
cither enacted or at least approved by the society." 
Some of the Christian doctors and preachers of this 
century were very able men. They did much by tongue 
and pen to defend and disseminate the doctrines of the 
Church. These teachers "inculcated no other doctrines 
than those which are contained in what is commonly 
called the Apostles, Creed, and, in the method of illus- 
trating them, all vain entities, all mysterious researches, 
everything that was beyond the reach of common capaci- 
ties, were carefully avoided." 

An apparent necessity would soon arise for precise 



HISTOEY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



321 



definitions and philosophical speculations, to meet the 
objections to Christianity. Here was a source of great 
danger to the Church, for when ignorant men undertook 
this work, genuine Christianity was apt to disappear. 
They adopted a fanciful way of interpreting the Script- 
ures. They proclaimed that words had a double mean- 
ing, one plain and the other hidden, but this hidden 
meaning was altogether the most important. It would 
seem that the only rule for determining this hidden 
meaning was the exercise of a lively fancy. 

The baneful influence of the Persian Gnosis con- 
tinued. It showed itself in the delusion that there was 
something holy in retiring from men, giving up work, 
trade, and society, abstaining from the family duties, 
fasting, and wearing old clothes and rags, going about 
barefooted and bareheaded, eating nothing that tasted 
good, and in all ways tormenting the body; these were 
esteemed meritorious acts. This was exactly reversing 
the Bible idea of religion, which is to help others into 
all the good we can. 

The simplicity of the Christian religion was corrupted 
by the introduction of many forms and ceremonies to 
impress the senses. The officers of the Church adopted 
Jewish titles. The bishop was called high priest, pres- 
byters were called priests, and deacons, Levites. The 
bishop therefore adopted the gorgeous robes, glittering 
with gold and diamonds and costly stones. In order to 
equal the sacred mysteries of Greek and Roman pagan- 
ism, simple Church ordinances were converted into 
mysteries. The Lord's Supper and Baptism were thus 
changed, even going so far as to adopt some of the 
ceremonies of the mysteries themselves; and finally all 
the services of the Church were more or less corrupted 



322 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



in this way. As a sample of this practice, they fed milk 
and honey — the common food of infants — to those 
recently baptized, to teach that they were born again. 

THIRD CENTURY. 

During this century the Church continued to grow 
with considerable rapidity, especially in parts of Europe, 
The Goths, one of those Germanic tribes, of which but 
little is known save that they were one of the first to 
threaten the existence of the Roman Empire, but who 
finally settled in what is now Austria and Macedonia, 
were to some extent converted to Christianity. Chris- 
tianity also spread rapidly ;nnong the Gauls, who in- 
habited what is now France and Belgium, and among 
tribes living in what is now Germany. One cause lead- 
ing to this growth was the translation of the Bible into 
the various languages of the day. 

The Christians were, however, subjected to many 
persecutions during this centui;y. The Emperor Sevcrus 
forbade any subject to change the religion of his ances- 
tors. The effect of this was especially hard on the 
Christians, as cruel magistrates, under its sanction, could 
punish, even with death, those who were too poor to 
purchase protection. Maximin and Trajan inflicted great 
evils on the Christians. It is perhaps not strange, in 
view of the sufferings to which they were exposed, that 
many apostatized. The last quarter of the century was 
one of comparative tranquillity. 

The internal government of the Church was slowly 
undergoing a change during this century. In each of 
the larger cities, there was at the head of each church a 
bishop, who exercised considerable influence over the 
church, but in matters of moment the whole assembly 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



323 



was consulted. The bishop of the principal church in a 
province had some standing authority over the remaining 
churches. The bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alex- 
andria were much consulted, and exerted great influence 
over the churches in their departments. This authority, 
we must notice, was not very great. The churches 
claimed and exercised the right to follow their own 
judgment when they saw fit. The bishops of smaller 
churches rejected, even with contempt, the judgment of 
the bishop of Rome, Antioch, or Alexandria, as the case 
might be, if they saw fit to do so. But the tendency of 
Church government toward a religious monarchy must 
be noticed. 

In the forms of worship, the multiplication of rites 
and ceremonies went forward. Incense was used in some 
of the churches. The sign of the cross was thought to 
be a great protection against the snares of malignant 
spirits. The Lord's Supper was celebrated with great 
pomp. The candidate for baptism was first delivered 
from the dominion of the prince of darkness by loud 
shouts and menaces. The rite itself was administered 
only in the presence of those who had been baptized, 
and, after receiving baptism, the candidate returned to 
his home adorned with crowns and arrayed in white 
garments. 

The great subjects of discussion in the Church during 
century were numerous, and, to some extent, divided 
the Church. One subject was how to treat those Chris- 
is who had apostatized to escape the cruel persecu- 
tions. The importance of learning was also much dis- 
5ed. Some thought that Greek and Roman literature 
was of great help; others denounced as pernicious all such 
learning. The friends of learning finally prevailed. The 



324 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



most famous discussion was that concerning the millen- 
nium — that is, the belief of the earthly reign of Christ 
for one thousand years. This controversy occasioned 
some to reject the book of Revelation. In this century 
began, also, the controversy concerning the Trinity, 
which we w ill find playing an important part at a later 
period. 

There were two theories to explain the fact of human 
sin. Those who were much influenced by Gnostic theo- 
ries explained it quite readily by the influence of the 
body, which, being material, was sinful. Others ac- 
counted for it by assuming that an evil spirit dwelt in 
man. and was to be frightened away by noise and cere- 
monies. One of the greatest heresies of this century 
was introduced from Persia by Manes. As might be 
expected, his system included the idea of the sinfulness 
of matter. He taught that Christ and the Holy Spirit 
were created by God to deliver the imprisoned soul from 
the power of matter. lie rejected most of the books of 
the Bible, and would supply their place by a production 
of his own. 

Many eminent men were living during this century. 
Amongst these Origen stands pre-eminent. Professor 
Stowe says he "was one of the most wonderful men that 
any age or country ever produced. Sincere, earnest, 
indefatigable, prolific, his numerous writings are amongst 
the richest treasures which Christian antiquity has left 
us, and no witness to the sacred books is more trust- 
worthy, copious, and important than he." Some views 
that he held, however, became the subject of fierce dis- 
pute. As a result, he was degraded from his office, 
though sustained by many churches. His doctrines 
formed a subject of discussion for centuries. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



325 



FOURTH CENTURY. 

During the first decade of this century Christianity 
suffered greatly from the persecutions of the reigning 
emperors; but this was the darkest hour before the 
dawn. Constantine the Great, who gradually drew to 
himself the sole government of the Roman Empire, was 
not only friendly to Christianity from the first, but about 
the year 324 A. D. professed his faith in its principles. 
From this time on, with a slight interruption only, the 
civil power of Rome, hitherto used to crush Christianity, 
was now employed in its spread. Christianity emerged 
from its conflicts with heathenism victorious. It was 
now firmly established, and we need no longer concern 
ourselves particularly in tracing its rise and growth, but 
more especially the gradual development of its govern- 
ment and doctrine. 

During this century the government of the Church 
steadily set toward the establishment of the Papacy. 
The bishops, who in earlier times used their power, such 
as it was, with prudence, quite naturally, when all dan- 
ger of persecution was passed, arrogated to themselves 
increased authority. The first step was to shut out the 
churches under their charge from any voice in the man- 
agement of ecclesiastical affairs. Why the churches 
submitted to this is difficult to determine. A people 
having confidence in their bishop would not, however, 
closely question his acts. Probably the approach to this 
state of affairs was made gradually. The mass of the 
people were not educated, and should any raise his voice 
in protest, that powerful weapon of superstition (excom- 
munication) stared him in the face. 

The Emperor Constantine, in accordance with his 



320 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ideas of tlio fitness of tilings, assumed the right to model 
and govern the Church. He therefore made some 
changes in the classification of the bishops. We have 
seen that the bishops of three cities — Rome, Antioch, 
and Alexandria — enjoyed a certain pre-eminence. To 
those was now added the bishop of Constantinople, the 
new imperial city. These four prelates were, perhaps, 
distinguished in this century by the title of Patriarch. 
Quite in accordance with the logic of events, the bishop 
of Rome enjoyed the chief distinction among these offi- 
cials, lie was bishop in the most magnificent city of 
the day — the seat of power of the greatest empire. 
A\ hen sul 3equently Constantinople became a second 
imperial city, its bishop at once claimed equal honor 
with the bishop of Rome; and thus was begun that dis- 
pute between Rome and Constantinople which terminated, 
after many years, in the separation of the Eastern, or 
Greek Church, from the Western, or Latin Church, com- 
monly known as the Roman Catholic Church. 

The forms of worship during this century steadily 
declined from the purer spiritual worship of the apos- 
tolic age. Christianity had, indeed, prevailed over 
heathenism, but heathenism succeeded in greatly cor- 
rupting Christianity. Some of the clergy of this age 
were, indeed, learned men, but the majority of them 
were ignorant, and gloried in their ignorance. They 
made haste to ingraft in their worship many heathen 
customs — somewhat changed, indeed, but we have no 
difficulty in recognizing them in their new attire. "The 
public processions and supplications by which the pagans 
endeavored to appease their gods were now adopted into 
the Christian worship, and celebrated in many places 
with great pomp and magnificence. The virtues which 



HISTOEY OF CHEISTIANITY. 



327 



had formerly been ascribed to the heathen temples, to 
their lustrations, to the statues of their gods and heroes, 
were now attributed to Christian churches, to water con- 
secrated by certain forms of prayer, and to the images 
of holy men. . . . Frequent pilgrimages were un- 
dertaken to Palestine and to the tombs of martyrs, 
. . . and quantities of dust and earth from these 
places . . . were handed about as the most powerful 
remedies against the violence of wicked spirits." 1 

Monasteries were introduced into Europe in this cent- 
ury. Before this many men had been living solitary 
lives ; they were now first banded together and organ- 
ized. It is here not difficult to see the influence of the 
old notion that matter was sinful. In order to attain 
true felicity and communion with God, it was necessary 
that the body be tormented as much as possible. The 
source of two more customs of the Catholic Church may 
be found in this century, also. They arose from the 
celebration of the Lord's Supper. In some places this 
was administered two or three times a week to all those 
who were assembled to worship; sometimes celebrated 
at the tombs of martyrs and at funerals. From this 
arose the mass. The adoration of the bread and wine 
used in communion began by simply holding them up 
for contemplation. 

The great question of discussion throughout this cent- 
ury was concerning the Trinity — Avhat was the relation 
between the three persons of the Godhead? In the pre- 
ceding centuries this question had not been very much 
discussed. We can only give a mere outline. Arius, a 
presbyter of Alexandria, maintained that Christ, the 
Son, was inferior to God, the Father, in nature and dig- 

1 Mosheim. 
20 



328 



THE BIBLE COMPANION'. 



nity. His followers were called Arians. This dispute 
shook tin 1 Church from center (<> circumference. The 
Council of Nice, convened by Constantine the Great, 
decided against Arius. But this did not settle the mat- 
ter. First one party and then the other prevailed with 
the emperor, and what one emperor sanctioned his suc- 
cess »r very likely condemned. The party in power, 
whichever it might be, persecuted their opponents. 
Thus, for more than fifty years this strife continued, but 
in the reign of Theodosius the Great the followers of 
Arius were finally subdued. 

We must be very brief in mentioning a few of the 
many scholars of this century. There was Jerome, who 
mad > the celebrated translation of the Bible into Latin, 
known as the Vulgate, which has ever remained the 
authoritative Bible of the Catholic Church. 1 Euscbius, 
bishop of Caesarea, was a very learned man, and a most 
voluminous writer. St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, not 
only exerted a great influence in his own day, but this 
influence still continues. He was a disciple of Manes 
before he was converted to Christianity, and his writings 
slmw that he was never quite free from the influence of 
his early views. 

FIFTH CENTURY. 

Shortly before the opening of this century the Roman 
Empire was divided into two portions — the Western 
Empire, with its capital at Rome, and the Eastern, with 
its capital at Constantinople. It was during this century 
that the Western Empire fell before the attacks of the 
scarcely civilized Germanic tribes. Some of these tribes, 
as the Goths, had accepted Christianity before they 

1 Page 138. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



329 



turned their energies to destroying the empire. Others 
embraced Christianity as soon as fairly established in 
their possessions. But it is evident that where whole 
nations and tribes embrace Christianity before receiving 
any very complete instructions, it is far from being a 
matter of the heart; and to this cause is due no little 
part of the corruption of the religious beliefs of the first 
centuries of the Church. 

The Church government continued much the same as 
before, but the changes, such as they were, greatly en- 
hanced the importance of the bishop of Rome. The 
bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, 
and Jerusalem were now styled patriarchs, and given 
increased authority. They, alone, consecrated the bish- 
ops who lived in the provinces that belonged to their 
jurisdiction. Of these patriarchs two — those of Rome 
and Constantinople — from their location, exerted the 
greatest influence. There was considerable strife between 
them for pre-eminence. We have not space to show all 
the reasons why the patriarch of Rome, by an artful use 
of his power, and many favorable circumstances, finally 
gained the upper hand. 

There was no improvement in the forms of worship. 
Matters in this respect were steadily growing worse. 
All classes of the clergy, from the highest to the lowest, 
were becoming rich, and were noted for their pride and 
lie ritiousness. That this is no fancy sketch is evident 
from the councils of the day, where many complaints 
were made of this state of affairs. The Church endured 
such a state of things, because the ideas they had inher- 
it 'I from their Jewish and pagan ancestors, as to the 
divine rights of priests, exerted a great influence. The 
great mass of the clergy were far from being educated 



330 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



men. Mosheim tells us, in many cases, their only aim 
in entering the ministry was to enjoy a " lazy and in- 
glorious repose." In such a soil it is evident that " pure 
religion, and undefiled," would not find a congenial home. 

Superstitious practices of all kinds increased to an 
alarming extent. Amid the general superstition and 
imitation of heal lieu rites there was not wanting noble 
men who opposed this state of things. A'igilantes, a 
man remarkable for his learning and eloquence, labored 
with great energy to restore the purer forms of worship, 
and cast off the load of superstitious and foolish cus- 
toms, lie was a thousand years ahead of his time. Had 
he prevailed, the Reformation would have dawned in the 
fifth century, John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantino- 
ple, was another brave, devout man, who rebuked the 
scandalous acts of his time. lie was rewarded with 
impeachment, degradation from office, death in exile, 
and. let us add, Christ's blessing for those of whom all 
speak evil falsely. 

The contentions of this age were many, long contin- 
ued, and fierce. All have heard of the Xcstorian Chris- 
tians of Asia Minor. Their origin dates from this 
century. Xestorius, bishop of Constantinople, contended 
that the title given to the Virgin Mary, viz. : Mother of 
God, was incorrect; it should be, Mother of Christ, since 
deity can neither be born nor die. This started a most 
violent discussion. The patriarchs of Rome and Alex- 
andria united their forces to crush Xestorius. He wag 
deprived of his office and sent into exile. But his views 
had gained a firm hold, and his followers found a home 
in Persia, and have ever remained distinct from the 
Latin Church. This controversy lasted for fifty years, 
and was the occasion of the meeting of several councils, 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



331 



the most noticeable one of which was at Chalcedon, 
A. D. 451. 

The somewhat famous controversy, usually called the 
Pelagian heresy, arose in this century. Pelagius was a 
British monk. It is not quite clear what he taught, nor, 
for this matter, what many who were called heretics 
taught, since our knowledge of the same comes to us 
through the writings of their enemies. It is usually 
said he taught "that the sins of our first parents were 
imputed to them alone." Few men now would regard 
this as heresy, if, by sin, he meant the "doing of law- 
lessness." 1 It is also affirmed that Pelagius taught that 
little children were born as pure and unspotted as Adam. 
This, probably, few would accept as literally true, for 
they are born with depraved bodies; but this depravity, 
in itself, is not sin nor sinful ; even after conversion men 
have depraved bodies. If Pelagius meant to deny de- 
pravity, he was mistaken; but if he simply meant that 
this was not sin, and that God does not blame little 
infants for it, he was wise above his age. 

SIXTH CENTURY. 

During this century the night of the Dark Ages closed 
down on Europe. Many tribes embraced Christianity, 
and were said to be converted, but their religion was 
certainly a very superficial thing. It amounted to a 
little more than a change of their gods for the pictures 
and images of saints and martyrs. Christianity was 
reintroduced into Britain, and made great progress among 
the people of Central Europe. In some places the Chris- 
tians experienced great persecution. Especially was this 
the ease in Persia. It was assumed by the Persian king 

'Page 187. 



THE 151 15LK COMPANION. 



that the sympathies of his Christian subjects were with 
the Romans, a people with whom he was at war, and, 
accordingly, he put thousands of them to death. 

in church government we notice the growing impor- 
tance of the patriarch of Rome, and the conflict between 
this prelate and the patriarch of Constantinople. In the 
West the bishop of Rome succeeded in establishing him- 
self as the head of the Church; but his claims were not 
at all respected in the East, save by those bishops who 
were unfriendly to Constantinople. The Gothic kings of 
Italy permitted none to be raised to that office without 
their approbation, and claimed the right to pass on the 
legality of every election. 

Religion was certainly at a very low ebb during this 
century. Mere externals were exalted beyond all bounds. 
T!i<- honor paid to relics, and the superstitions of the 
Church, made Christianity, in many respects, little dif- 
ferent from pagan fsm. Mosheim uses the following 
strong language: "The public teachers and instructors 
of the people . . . seemed to aim at nothing else 
than to sink the multitude into the most opprobrious 
ignorance and superstition, to efface from their minds all 
sense of the beauty and excellence of genuine piety, and 
to substitute in the place of religious principles a blind 
veneration for the clergy, and a stupid zeal for a sense- 
less round of ridiculous ceremonies." The Benedictine 
order of monks originated in this century, monasteries 
were multiplied to a very great extent, and the monks 
became a powerful and influential class. 

It is a relief to turn our attention from the consider- 
ation of the foolish customs of the Church to a brighter 
picture. When the night of the Dark Ages enwrapt 
Europe, the liberal arts and sciences found a refuge in 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



335 



the Church, and especially among the monastic orders. 
Those churches which were of sufficient importance to be 
called cathedrals had schools erected under their juris- 
diction. Libraries were formed in all monasteries, and 
the works of ancient writers were copied.; and to this 
custom we owe their preservation. 

The controversies of this age were mainly echoes from 
an earlier day. The sect known as the Monophysites, 
though originating in the previous century, were greatly 
multiplied in this. This sect was a reaction from the 
Nestorians. This latter sect, remember, dwelt on the 
difference between the divine and the human natures of 
Christ, The Monophysites (meaning one nature) held 
that Christ had but one nature — that the divine. The 
position of the Church has always been, since the coun- 
cil at Ephesus, 431 A. D., midway between these two 
extremes. 

SEVENTH CENTURY. 

Outwardly, the Church was greatly enlarged during 
tii is century. The Nestorians were especially active in 
the East. It is supposed their missionaries penetrated 
to India and China. In Britain and the countries of 
Central Europe, also, the Church prospered. The Church 
disgraced itself by the action of those in authority, in 
regard to the Jews. In many places they were dragged 
into the churches and baptized by force. It should be 
remembered that the bishops of Rome expressed their 
displeasure at such methods of procedure. 

A great blow was struck at Christianity early in this 
century. This was delivered by Mohammed, the founder 
of Islamism. The peculiarities of this religion are dis- 
cussed in another chapter. 1 Doubtless, all are aware of 

1 rage 303. 



33(5 



THE I5IBLE COMPANION. 



the rapid spread of Mohammedanism. Before the close 
of this century Orthodox, Catholic Christianity was virtu- 
ally driven out of Asia and Africa. The Nestorians and 
Monophysites, however, enjoyed a considerable share of 
Mohammedan favor. 

The disputes between the bishops of Rome and Con- 
stantinople proceeded to great lengths. The bishop of 
Rome secured, by some means, the favor of the Emperor 
Phocas, a murderous usurper, who refused to allow the 
bishop of Constantinople to use the title of universal 
bishop, a privilege he had long; enjoyed, but granted the 
pre-eminence to Rome; and thus was papal supremacy 
brought about. The pope, for such we must now call the 
bishop of Homo, made every effort to enlarge and main- 
tain the authority he had thus acquired. It must be 
noticed that, in such countries as England, Gaul, and 
Spain, the bishops were far from approving his course. 

No improvement ill Church worship was made during 
this century. The respect paid to relics, the bones of 
martyrs, and portions of the true cross, was dangerously 
near to worship. In the days of the apostles, the idea 
was that those excluded from the joys of heaven were 
those who had sinned and had not turned away from 
their iniquity. Now, those excluded were such as had 
not contributed liberally to the clergy and Church. The 
arguments relied on to remove doubts and to silence 
skepticism, were not the truths of the Bible and of rea- 
son, but "the authority of the Church and the miracles 
and prodigies wrought to enforce it." 

The controversies of this century were also, to a 
large extent, echoes from earlier times. But to show 
what trifling causes sufficed to plunge the Church into 
angry discussions, extending over half a century in time, 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 337 

we will cite the discussion concerning the Monothelites 
(meaning one will). An effort was made to unite the 
Monophysites (the sect holding Christ had but one na- 
ture) with the Orthodox Church. It was thought this 
might be done by teaching that Christ had but one will. 
Rival councils were held, popes disagreed, and the dis- 
putes over this question engrossed the attention of the 
Church during the greater part of the century. 

EIGHTH CENTURY. 

The Mohammedans, or, as they were called at that 
time, the Saracens, made great havoc with Christianity 
in Egypt, Syria, and Arabia. They even invaded 
Europe, and possessed themselves of Spain and the 
island of Sardinia, and, as a natural consequence, the 
Christians were persecuted. The Nestorians, however, 
were very active in spreading Christianity in that vast 
stretch of country lying to the east and south of the Cas- 
pian Sen, now known as Turkestan and Persia. It 
seems singular to us now, but the religion of Christ pre- 
vailed in those countries for many years. Christianity 
also made great progress in Central Europe, partly from 
the persuasive eloquence of St. Boniface, but more from 
the military success of Charlemagne. Whole tribes had 
the choice of slavery or Christianity set before them, and 
naturally chose the latter. 

We have seen in the preceding century the suprem- 
acy of Rome successfully established. There is not much 
to add during this century. The pope was, however, 

■ id to the rank of a temporal prince. His power was 
still very far from what it subsequently became. The 
bishops of a province, in council assembled, deemed it 
neither impious nor unlawful to dissent from the opin- 



338 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ions of the pope, or even to charge him with errors; and 
furthermore, the power of the pope was held in subjec- 
tion to the civil power. Charlemagne reserved the right 
of approving or disapproving the election of a pope, and 
no laws or decrees of a council were of force until 
approved and confirmed by the supreme magistrate. 

The state of religion was deplorable. Says Moshcim: 
"The true religion of Jesus, if we except a few of its 
doctrines contained in the Creed, was utterly unknown 
in this century, not only to the multitude in general, but 
also to the doctors of the first rank and eminence in the 
Church. . . . The clergy abandoned themselves to 
their passions, without moderation or restraint. They 
were distinguished by their luxury, their gluttony, and 
their lust." Space only prevents us from enlarging on 
this topic. Christianity in the eighth century resembles 
a fair structure, devoted to most ignoble purposes. It 
may be beautiful to look at, but within is all manner of 
uncleanliness. 

The great discussion of the century — one which 
plunged whole provinces into the misery of civil war, 
and occupied the attention of rival councils — was about 
the worship of pictures and images. The churches were 
plentifully adorned with these articles, and to them the 
Christians as truly made worship as did ever the heathen 
worship idols. It avails nothing to say the Christians 
simply made use of pictures and images to aid them in 
forming conceptions of the invisible God. The heathen 
made equal claim in relation to their idols. In neither 
case did the mass of the people draw any such dis- 
tinction. 

A most A'igorous effort was made from Constanti- 
nople to crush out this idolatry. The pope opposed this 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



339 



movement, probably not so much from principle, but 
because it originated in Constantinople. Three hundred 
bishops from Central Europe, assembled at Frankfort-on- 
the-Main, unanimously condemned the worship of pict- 
ures and images, directly contrary to the pope's known 
and expressed views, which shows us that they did not 
think it wrong to controvert his opinions. 

NINTH CENTURY. 

Christianity made considerable progress during this 
century in the northern and eastern parts of Europe; 
and these spiritual conquests were achieved in a much 
better way than during the eighth century. As a rule, 
the missionaries sought to turn men from paganism in a 
Christian way — by persuasion, and by the power of ex- 
emplary lives. The Church suffered considerably from 
the successes of the Saracens, who made great advances 
in Asia and Africa; but the Christians in Spain were 
not seriously oppressed. It was during this century that 
the Norsemen made their piratical descents on the coun- 
tries of Europe, and the Christians suffered greatly from 
their invasions. 

In Church government we have only to notice the 
steps by which the pope increased his power and influ- 
ence. We have seen that the emperors reserved the 
right to pass on the election of the pontiff. Near the 
end of this century this right was dropped by the em- 
perors, and exactly opposite rights were claimed by the 
pope, viz.: the right to nominate the king of Italy and 
emperor of the Romans. This was not all: the ancient 
rules of ecclesiastical government were gradually under- 

ed, and new laws established in their places. The 
authority of provincial and general councils began to 



340 



THK I5II5LK COMPANION". 



decline, and the bishops, who in an earlier age claimed 
to derive their authority from above, were now r persuaded 
to believe that the pope was the source from whence 
episcopal authority proceeded. 

We must not forget to mention that this century 
wit nosed the final withdrawal of the Eastern or Greek 
Church from the Western or Latin one. We have seen 
the contests for supremacy between Rome and Constan- 
tinople. There was, in addition, slight differences in 
doctrinal views. Neither party was wholly free from 
wrong. The schism thus produced has never been 
healed, and the Greek Church is to-day the state religion 
of Russia and Bulgaria. 

The state of religion during this century continued in 
the same deplorable state as before. In one source only 
light began to appear. This was due to a partial revival 
of learning. Charlemagne, emperor of the Franks, made 
great endeavors to revive learning, and in this, his im- 
mediate successors emulated him. Jn England, Alfred 
the Great used all his power to the same end. But such 
was state of affairs in Europe — the internal commo- 
tion-, and the general apathy of the clergy, that but 
little progress was made. Space forbids a proper show- 
ing of how much praise is due the Saracens in this 
matter. The duty which the Christian Church neg- 
lected, they enforced. Science and learning, denied a 
congenial home in Europe, were carefully nourished by 
them. Spain, under Saracen rule, was the most enlight- 
ened country of its day in Europe. 

The great controversy concerning image worship 
extended over into this century. But a new point of 
dispute was concerning the Lord's Supper. In what 
sense was the body and blood of Christ present in the 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



341 



bread and wine of the communion? All know what the 
pros, nt position of the Catholic Church on that point is. 
They hold that, after consecration by the priest, the veri- 
table body and blood of Christ are present. It is no longer 
bread and wine, but flesh and blood. This singular the- 
ory was proclaimed as early as 845 A. D., though it was 
opposed by many of the best men of the time. Another 
subject of dispute was the doctrine of Predestination. 
For more than a thousand years this has been a great 
subject of discussion in the Church, and is not yet 
settled. 

TENTH CENTURY. 

The advances of Christianity during this century 
were not great, and were mainly confined to establishing 
on a firmer basis the foothold previously gained among 
the barely civilized powers of Central, Northern, and 
Eastern Europe. In some cases, as for instance among 
the Normans of Normandy, the Avhole nation seems to 
have followed without questioning the example of their 
king. If he was only convinced of the truths of Chris- 
tianity, his warlike subjects needed no farther arguments 
to induce them to accept Christianity also. It must be 
evid< nt, however, that in such cases they were often 
Christians only in name, and to this fact, no doubt, is to 
be attributed much of the low state of religion of this 
century. 

We have seen in the previous century the Papacy 
fully established. In appearance, the power of the popes 
somewhat curtailed in the tenth century. Otho the 
it, of Germany, reasserted the right of the reigning 
•erors to pass on the election of the popes. He also 
assumed jurisdiction of the city of Rome and its terri- 



342 



THE IJIBLK COMPANION. 



lory. But yet the pope's real power was slowly increas- 
ing during this century. They were assisted in this 
matter by the fawning flattery of some prelates who were 
ever discoursing about the rights and privileges of the 
Apostolic See. Some bishops even went so far as to 
declare that the popes were not only bishops of Rome, 
but of the whole world. 

A most gloomy picture must be drawn of the state 
of religion during the tenth century. The worship of 
the Virgin Mary was carried to a great height, Forma 
and ceremonies had usurped the place of heart religion. 
The corruption of the clergy was very great, Mosheini 
says: "The clergy were, for the most part, a most 
worthless set of men. Shamefully illiterate, especially 
in religious matters, equally enslaved to sensuality and 
superstition, and capable of the most abominable deeds." 
During this century there were twenty-four popes of 
Rome. Their reigns varied from one month to seven 
years. Some of them were rivals, each claiming to be 
po] c at the same time. A number of them died in 
prison, where they were cast by their victorious suc- 
cessors, who, straining every nerve, stopped at nothing 
that prevented them from grasping the glittering prize. 

We all know that, during our present century, 
enthusiastic believers in the Second Advent doctrine 
have several times set the year when Christ was to 
appear and judge the world. In the tenth century, the 
belief was quite general in Europe that the thousand 
years, of which John speaks in the Revelation, were 
about to expire. The effects of this belief were wonder- 
ful. Great multitudes, abandoning all their possessions, 
flocked to Palestine, where Christ was expected to make 
His first appearance. An eclipse of the sun or the moon 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



343 



created the greatest consternation. We know how, at 
the present day, people act when convinced that Christ 
is soon to come. All these effects were, of course, 
greatly intensified in that century of ignorance, super- 
stition, turmoil, and corruption. 

ELEVENTH CENTURY. 

As in the previous century, the main efforts of Chris- 
tianity were confined to rendering more satisfactory the 
state of religion among many of the comparatively rude 
tribes who had nominally professed Christianity before 
this date. The greatest opposition to Christianity was 
experienced at the hands of the Saracens and Turks. 
This latter people, in the previous century, had suddenly 
appeared on the confines of Asia Minor, and were now 
triumphing over the Saracens, whose religion they, how- 
ever, embraced, and were making their power felt to the 
very walls of Constantinople. They inflicted great cruel- 
ties on the Christians in the countries they had reduced 
under their dominion. 

In Church government, we have but little new to 
notice. However, during this century, the power of the 
Roman pontiff rose to its highest limits. They not only 
aspired to the position of supreme ruler within the Church, 
but now claimed the right to decide the fate of kingdoms 
and empires, and sought to domineer over the kings and 
princes of earth. In this century, a change was made in 
the manner of choosing a pope. The suffrage was taken 
from the clergy, the nobility, and assembly of the Church, 
and vested in what was called the college of cardinals, 
where it has since remained. Celibacy had always been 
considered a very meritorious state, but marriage was not 
entirely forbidden to the clergy until this century. 



344 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



The state of religion was not improved in this cent- 
ury. The people were sunk in ignorance and super- 
stition, and employed their time in the worship of images 
and relics. And yet it seems there were not wanting 
men who clearly perceived the vice and immorality in 
the Church, and made efforts at a reformation. Such 
men saw, from the fragments of the New Testament in 
their hands, that the religion of their day was not that 
taught by Christ and the apostles. Owing to a variety 
of causes, these efforts did not amount to much. Some 
attempts were made to explain the Scriptures, and com- 
mentaries were written on various books of the Bible. 

. The great event of the day was the first crusade. 
Of course, all know more or less about the crusades. 
The superstition of the times deemed it a most unendu- 
rable thing that Palestine, the holy land, should be in the 
hands of the worse than infidel Saracens. A monk, Peter 
the Hermit, traveled in Palestine, and this thought so tilled 
him that he went throughout Europe preaching on the 
necessity of rescuing Palestine from its unworthy holders. 
Every ingenuity that superstition could suggest was used 
to further his schemes. The result was that a motley army 
of some eight hundred thousand men was gathered for 
this purpose, and, in several divisions, set out for Pales- 
tine, via Constantinople. Some of the divisions, espe- 
cially the one under the lead of Peter himself, committed 
such atrocious crimes on the inhabitants of the countries 
through which they passed, that the people, in self- 
defense, resisted them by force of arms, and massacred 
most of them. But, under more skillful leaders, the sur- 
vivors succeeded in taking Jerusalem and establishing 
what they were pleased to call the kingdom of Jeru- 
salem. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



345 



TWELFTH CENTURY. 

Christianity did not make much progress during this 
century. The principal nations of Europe were now, 
nominally at least, Christians. However, we are pre- 
sented with the spectacle of a Holy War, undertaken 
with a view of bringing into the Church some, of the 
pagan tribes, such as the Livonians, inhabiting the coun- 
try along the eastern shore of the Baltic. When the 
alternative of Christianity or the sword is presented to 
■ a people, they not unnaturally choose the former, though 
they may fall far short of making it a matter of the 
heart. The Nestorians, who had been making great con- 
quests in Western Asia, received a severe blow from the 
conquests of the Tartars, under the leadership of the 
renowned Genghis Khan. In Persia, for instance, Chris- 
tianity was nearly exterminated. 

The changes in Church government were not consider- 
able during this century. The popes reached the very 
pinnacle of their power, and, in fact, the decline com- 
menced. The temporal rulers of Europe could but be 
alarmed at the manifest tendency of papal supremacy. 
The popes were aiming at nothing else than universal 
dominion. Hence arose a violent dissension between 
the civil power and the priesthood. Several different 
times was Italy invaded, Rome taken, and the haughty 
pontiff cast into prison, by indignant emperors. But 
yet, with the powerful ally, superstition, the popes were 
enabled to hold their own during this century, as wit- 
qi I he humiliation of Henry II of England before 
Alexander III. 

The state of religion can be given in a very few 

Is. The famous St. Bernard, whose influence was- 
21 



— 



340 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



almost irresistible throughout Europe, has left two short 
treatises, in which Ik* exposes with a merciless pen the 
corruption of popes ami bishops, and describes "the 
enormous crimes of the monastic orders, whose licen- 
tiousness he chastises with just severity." And, indeed, 
this view is echoed in the writings of other historians of 
this age, and in the laws and decrees of synods and 
councils. The popes would not look with any favor on 
any doctrine that tended to reduce their authority. All 
the precepts of morality and religion were forced to be 
interpreted in this same spirit. The monstrous doctrine 
of indulgences was proclaimed in this century. This was 
the doctrine that played so important a part in bringing 
on the Reformation. 

hi this century arose the sect of the Waldenses, 
which is one source of light in the darkness of super- 
stition and ignorance which passed for morality and 
religion. They did not propose the formation of a new 
church, nor did they inculcate any new doctrine. They 
sought a return to genuine piety, a reformation in the 
lives and morals of the clergy and people. As might be 
expected, this sect met with little favor from the Church. 

The ill-starred kingdom of Jerusalem was nearly over- 
thrown in this century, though several crusades were 
undertaken in its defense, and amongst others one, of 
partial success, by Richard the Lion-hearted, of England. 
The kingdom itself was reduced to the city of Jerusalem, 
where it maintained a precarious existence for some years. 

During this century we must pause to notice the 
revival of learning. This cause had been making some 
progress in the previous century. What contributed in 
no small degree to improve the times was the discovery 
of the Justinian code of laws, which at an earlier clay 



HISTOEY OF CHEISTIANITY. 



347 



had been in force in the Roman Empire. This gave a 
great impetus to the study of civil law, and led to a 
great improvement in legal proceedings. The hint was 
also taken, and a regular code of canon or ecclesiastical 
law was promulgated. Hitherto there had been great 
disorder in this particular. The rules of action in ques- 
tions relating to the Church existed only in the shape of 
miscellaneous decrees of councils and synods. They 
were now reduced to order, paid so in criminal and 
religious legislation something like a definite system 
began to prevail. 

THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 

Christianity not only made no progress in this cent- 
ury, hut, on the contrary, lost ground. In Asia the 
great Tartar conquest greatly enfeebled the Nestorian 
Church, though it did not suppress it. In Asia Minor 
and Palestine Christianity steadily declined, though cru- 
sades to .sustain it were not wanting. It is admitted 
that, had the Saracens been animated with the same sav- 
age spirit that inspired the Christian forces, Christianity 
would have been annihilated in this section of Asia. As 
it was. it still led a languishing existence. Christianity 
prevailed more in Spain, where the Saracens lost a large 
part of their power. It seems strange, in the light of 
the present, to read that "the Prussians, a fierce and 
savage nation," still retained their idolatrous customs in 
this century. By the force of arms, however, they were 
compelled to accept Christianity. 

There is nothing new to add in Church government. 
The popes did not hesitate to declare that they were the 
supreme lords of the universe; that neither princes nor 
bishops, civil governors nor ecclesiastical rulers, had any 



348 



Till] lilBLE COMPANION'. 



right in church or state, except what they derived from 
them. They left no means untried to make this state- 
ment true. It was necessary for such princes as would 
nut assent to the truth of this statement to proceed with 
caution, owing to the superstition of their subjects. 
Hence it is that during this century we arc presented 
with the amazing spectacle of the "Vicar of Christ," 
whose kingdom is not of this world, engaged in setting 
up «»r dethroning kings, absolving subjects from their 
oaths of allegiance, and kindred acts. 

In Church doctrine we can only stop to notice a few 
points. We have seen that in the ninth century the 
view was entertained that the veritable body and blood 
of ( Ihrist were j .resent in the bread and wine of the com- 
munion. But the Church did not authoritatively pass 
on this point until the thirteenth century, when Pope 
Innocent III pronounced such to be the doctrine of the 
Catholic Church. This same pontiff made confession to 
the priest a duty enjoined by the Church. Long before 
this time this act was regarded as a most meritorious 
one; yet it was left to each one's conscience whether to 
make confession mentally to God or to a spiritual 
confidant. 

There is one institution of this century the horror of 
which, in this day of religious liberty, we do not fully 
conceive. This was the Inquisition. It originated in an 
humble way, but in its methods of work it proved such 
a serviceable tool in the hands of the popes to stamp out 
what they were pleased to call heresy, and to extend 
their own power and influence, that its scope was rap- 
idly extended, and came to its full strength in its horrid 
career in succeeding centuries. It seems that the causes 
which afterward ushered in the Reformation were even 



HISTOEY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



349 



then at work. We have noticed the rise of the Wal- 
denses in the previous century. There were numerous 
other sects, not all of equal merit, which, in spite of the 
powerful opposition of the Church, gathered strength 
from day to day. 

They were widely scattered throughout Europe, but 
appear to have been especially numerous in the south of 
France. They differed, of course, in various ways. On 
one point they were agreed: They regarded the religious 
system then in vogue as largely one of error and supersti- 
tion, and the dominion which the pope had usurped as un- 
lawful and tyrannical. All these heretics were included 
in one general name, the AlMgmses. We have not space 
to treat this subject fully. The Inquisition was a court 
established in nearly every city, consisting of one priest 
and three laymen. These courts were not holden to 
any rules of law or equity. Avarice, superstition, and 
cruelty marked their arbitrary proceedings. Their mis- 
sion was to stamp out heresy, and in the fulfillment of 
this they used all the power of the Church with a refined 
cruelty unworthy of the most barbarous nations of 
antiquity. 

FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

The last pagan prince in Europe embraced Chris- 
tianity in this century. Probably the moving cause that 
incited him to this step was a desire for worldly gain, as 
this was a condition precedent of his becoming king of 
Poland. The first half of this century both the Catholic 
and the Xestorian churches seem to have made advances 
in Asia. There is even some evidence that what is now 
Pekin, China, was made the seat of an archbishopric. 
But this advance was all lost before the close of the cent- 



350 



THE 15 1 RLE COMPANION. 



ury. The Tartars were driven out of China, the policy 
of exclusion was adopted, the veil of oblivion dropped 
over the churches of China, and we know nothing as to 
their fate. This century witnessed the victorious career 
of Tamerlane. lie was a Mohammedan, and his success 
meant the overthrow of Christianity in the provinces he 
conquered. The Turks also adopted the same policy, and 
thus at the expiration of this century Christianity was 
virtually driven out of Asia and Africa. The mosques 
of Mohammed arose on the ruins of Christian churches. 

Very important events in the history of Church gov- 
ernment transpired in this century. The power of the 
popes, now grown beyond all bounds, received a severe 
check. The rulers of Europe learned to hold in con- 
tempt their claim to make and unmake kings. The 
quarrel commenced betwVon the pope and a king of 
France, known as Philip the Fair. To the pope's for- 
midable sentence of excommunication, the king answered 
by charging him with all manner of crimes, and demand- 
ing a council for his removal. The pope's successor 
deemed prudence the better part of valor, and withdrew 
the sentence of excommunication. Subsequently Philip's 
influence was sufficient to raise to the papal throne a 
Frenchman, who left Rome and took up his residence at 
Avignon, in France. 

For seventy years Rome was without a pope, that 
official residing in France. We can see how absence 
from Rome tended to lessen the feeling of veneration for 
his person, for that was more or less connected with the 
traditions which clustered around the imperial city. The 
example of Philip of France was not lost on Louis of 
Bavaria, who, a few years later, had a quarrel with the 
pope about his possessions. He treated with contempt the 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



351 



excommunication launched at him, and even retorted with 
an attempt to place another pope on the throne. 

During this century also occurred the famous split in 
the Catholic Church, extending over some fifty years, 
during which time there were two, or even three, rival 
popes, ['lotting and counter-plotting, and one not behind 
the other in hurling anathemas and excommunications at 
his rivals. The occasion was this: After the popes had 
made Avignon their place of residence for some seventy 
years, Gregory XI returned to Rome, hoping, by this 
step, to quiet the disorders in Italy. Here he died, and 
the cardinals were so much afraid of a popular tumult, 
for the people demanded an Italian pope, that they 
hastily elected Urban VI. But this prelate, by his out- 
rageous behavior, so incensed the principal cardinals, that 
they assembled at Geneva and elected Clement VII, 
declaring the other election a matter of compulsion. All 
these circumstances which we have now recorded tended 
greatly to lessen the authority and influence of the popes. 

A very important event for Christianity was the 
translation of the Bible into English. This was by John 
Wycliffe, professor at Oxford. He used his influence 
against the monks, and, for his boldness of speech in 
this matter, was deprived of his professorship. He 
thereupon became bolder than ever, and attacked all 
ecclesiastical abuses, and did not hesitate to censure the 
pope. He wished to acquaint the people with the Script- 
ures, and so translated them into English. Influential 
friends, and the split in the Church to which we have 
referred, probably saved him from martyrdom. As it 
was, years after his death, his bones were dug up and 
burned. 1 

1 Page 30. 



352 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 

Christianity made no progress this century worth 
mentioning - . The Portuguese were making their great 
voyages of discovery during this century. They took 
missionaries with them to Africa, and whole nations 
along the Congo are said to have been converted, but 
nothing worthy of that name could have taken place. 
In 1492 Columbus sailed on his memorable voyage, and, 
as a n-sult, America, with its savage tribes, was brought 
to the attention of Europe. Efforts were at once taken 
to introduce Christianity, but nothing was accomplished 
in this century. It is probable that some INcstorian 
churches were still in existence in Central and Eastern 
Asia, but the last glimmering light from them soon dis- 
appeared. 

The unhappy split in the Catholic Church, to which 
we have referred, continued in one form or another to 
vex the Church for the first fifty years of this century. 
At its commencement there were two rival popes, one at 
Rome and the other at Avignon. To these were soon 
added a third, the choice of a council called to reconcile 
these difficulties. Finally, the Council of Constance met 
in 1414, deposed two of these popes, received the resigna- 
tion of the third, and elected a new pope, who was to 
rule the reunited Church. One very important subject, 
reaffirmed in this council, was, that the pope himself was 
inferior in authority to the general council of the Church. 
This was, indeed, the doctrine of early times, but, prac- 
tically, it had been for centuries ignored. 

During this century occurred the execution of John 
Huss, who was condemned as a heretic by the Council 
of Constance, and burned at the stake. His crime 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



353 



consisted in denouncing the corruption of the clergy. 
He was a man of great influence, and was unsparing in 
his denunciations. As a natural consequence, the council 
condemned him, because reformation was not what the 
Church desired, though it was one of the topics with 
which the council had to deal. This did not end the 
trouble. The names which consumed Huss lighted also 
the fires of a civil war in Bohemia, which raged with 
fury and varying success for many years. One emi- 
nent branch of the Hussites, as they were called, re- 
mained true to their principles, and were among the first 
to join Luther and his associates at the Reformation. 

CONCLUSION. 

With the sixteenth century the history of Chris- 
tianity becomes merged in the history of the Reforma- 
tion. In our review we have had such a multitude of 
topics to touch upon that only a few could be noticed in 
the limited space at our command. We have seen Chris- 
tianity, from a feeble beginning, grow to vast proportions. 
We have also had to trace the decline in purity from the 
apostolic days, until it became so greatly corrupted that 
it bore little resemblance to the religion of Christ. But 
it contained the germs of immortal truth, which bore 
most happy fruit in the sixteenth century. The Refor- 
mation not only gave to the world Protestantism and 
freedom of conscience, but its influence on Catholicism 
has been most salutary. 

Christianity and civilization go hand in hand. They 
act and react on each other. The civilization of the 
world at the birth of Christ was that of Greece and 
Rome. Barbarian tribes overthrew the Roman Empire, 
whose civilization they were not fitted to sustain. Many 



354 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



centuries of discipline and growth passed away before 
learning revived, civilization lifted its head, and the 
night of the Dark Ages disappeared. The causes which 
compelled civilization to pause, or even to retrograde, 
affected also Christianity. The barbarian tribes were 
little calculated to understand the requirements of a 
spiritual worship. In tins case, also, centuries of grad- 
ual growth were requisite, ^'hen, from the stand-point 
of the present, we view the past, it seems to us, humanly 
speaking, the most natural thing in the world that 
Christianity became corrupted. It also seems to us 
natural that when learning revived, and civilization once 
more commenced its onward march, Christianity should 
don her purer robes, and shake from her embrace the 
superstition and follies of the Dark Ages. 



THE REFORMATION. 



357 



She Reformation. 




N" the preceding chapter we have given a brief 
outline history of the rise and extension of 
Christianity, and, also, of the doctrines and 
usages of the Christian Church from the min- 



istry of Christ to the close of the fifteenth century. Our 
aim, in this chapter, is to give some notice of the re- 
markable religious movement of the sixteenth century, 
called the Reformation. This movement changed the 
form of Church government, and the articles of belief 
of many m Europe. It gave to the world Protestantism, 
which infused new life into Christianity, and imparted to 
it a stimulus which enabled it to start anew on its glo- 
rious mission of purifying the world. 

There were not wanting events before this time that 
fore; old the coming revival of religion. Many were dis- 
satisfied with the claims of the bishop of Rome. While 
Christ's kingdom was not of this world, yet his " Vicar," 
for such the pope claimed to be, strained every nerve to 
make his power supreme in both Church and State. 
Many were dissatisfied with the round of senseless 
forms and ceremonies that did not feed their hungry 
souls. The immorality of some of the clergy, and the 
i trance of many, were a sore trial to all spiritually- 
minded persons. Dark as the day was, and thick as 
wt re the clouds of superstition, there were many that 
saw and keenly felt that there was something in the 
blessed gospel of Christ that the mass of the members 



358 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



of tlio Church did not enjoy. The persecuted Waldenses 
were witnesses of the truth during this time. John 
Huss lifted up a light that was not put out when his 
spirit ascended from the fires that consumed his body. 
In England, too, though they could burn the bones of 
Wycliffe, they could not deprive the people of the En- 
glish Bible, which his industry left for their perusal. 
The revival of learning gave a great impetus to all man- 
ner of investigation, and to the study of the classics 
and to the Christian Scriptures. It furnished new and 
improved weapons wherewith to fight superstition, big- 
otry and oppression, and especially the unreasonable 
claims of the professed ministry of the lowly Jesus, to 
rule alike over the brethren of the Church and the kings 
of nations. 

When, in the world's history, the time has fully 
come for the advance of any great movement, there are 
always to be found men eminently fitted for leadership. 
We must notice some of the leaders in this movement. 
The Protestant world will never forget Martin Luther. 
He was born in Eisleben, Saxony, of poor, laborious, but 
pious parents. He received a good education, had a 
retentive memory and a brave soul, \Vith a Saxon's love 
of liberty and hatred of oppression. It was only by the 
severest self-denial that he was enabled to obtain his ed- 
ucation. One means that he made use of to raise money 
was by singing, in company with others, from house to 
house. A liberal lady, Ursula Cotta, finally came to his 
assistance, and supported him at school until he entered 
the university at Erfurt. Impelled by a sense of re- 
ligious duty, he became an Augustinian monk, and sub- 
jected himself to severe monastic discipline. 

In the convent library he found a complete copy of 



THE REFORMATION". 



359 



the Bible and the writings of some of the fathers, 
especially of St. Augustine. The study of the Bible, 
and the unsatisfactory results obtained by his course of 
self-inflicted penance, gradually led him to the light. 
His abilities finally led to his appointment as professor 
of scholastic philosophy in the University of Wittenberg. 
He, also, taught theology, in which he followed St. 
Augustine. The influence of this father gave form to 
his theology to some extent. He had a somewhat large 
element of conservatism in his make-up, which helped 
him some. Had he been more radical he might have 
wrecked the Reformation on some of the rocks that were 
in his path. At the same time this attachment to the 
traditions and notions of his early years held him in 
bondage to some of the unreasonable and mischievous 
dogmas of the church of Rome. 

His ability is beyond question. His education was 
remarkable for that day, his industry was tireless, and his 
courage was of a very high order, while his defects were, 
in large measure, the results of his early training and 
his conservatism. While we speak of these defects, we 
would not deprive him of the high praise that so de- 
servedly belongs to him. We repeat that this tendency 
to adhere to his early training, no doubt, helped him to 

ly pass through dangers that would have destroyed a 
more radical or progressive man. He did not oppose 
soiii'^ unreasonable beliefs, nor suddenly forsake some 
unwise dogmas. 

Philip Melancthon is one who deserves honorable 
mention among the men who helped on the Reformation. 
He was a scholarly man, professor of Greek at Witten- 
berg, and thus a fellow-professor with Luther. He was 
a man of peace, loving retirement and study. He would 



360 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



never have been a leader in the Reformation of a corrupt 
Church. While he saw the corruption all around him, 
and hoped and prayed that the deplorable evils might 
be removed, he was not a man to be a leader in this 
icnovement; and yet, "when the hour of real danger 
proached, when things bore a formidable aspect, and the 
cause of religion was in imminent peril, then this timor- 
ous man was at once converted into an intrepid hero, 
looked danger in the face with unshaken constancy, an<t 
opposed his adversaries with invincible fortitude." 

Another groat man at this time — a leader in liberating 
some from bondage to the dead forms of a corrupt re- 
ligion — was Ulric Zwingli. He was a canon of Zurich, 
Switzerland. This man had the qualities of a leader, lie 
was learned, sagacious, and possessed most heroic intre- 
pidity and resolution. Some Protestant writers regard 
him as "beyond comparison the brightest ornament" of 
the Reformation. It seems that justice to the Swiss 
Christian leader demands that it be stated that he com- 
menced his work as a reformer before Luther. It seems 
that as early as the year 1516 "he had begun to explain 
the Scriptures to the people, and to censure, though with 
prudence and moderation, the errors of a corrupt Chinch, 
and that he had very noble and extensive ideas of a 
general Reformation at the very time that Luther retained 
almost the whole system of popery, indigencies excepted." 
~No one will claim for him freedom from error. 

Many other good men helped on this noble work, but 
we shall mention here but one more — John Calvin. He 
was born at IsToyon, in the north-east of France. He 
studied for the law. He is supposed to have derived 
his idea of religion from the study of the Bible. Prob- 
ably the Bible he studied was the Vulgate of Jerome. 



THE REFORMATION. 



361 



He was exposed to many clangers from the reigning 
powers in France. The queen of Navarre was his pro- 
tectress. He retired to Basil, where he published his 
"Christian Institutions." Calvin taught extreme views 
respecting the decrees of God, which led to harsh dis- 
cussions and some divisions, which are not yet entirely 
healed. 

We will now proceed more directly with the Re- 
formation. Trifling causes sometimes set in motion a 
train of consequences which produce most important 
results. In the present case, the exciting cause was an 
abuse of the doctrine of indulgencies. For centuries 
this belief had been acquiesced in by the Church, and is 
held to this day. A full explanation of this doctrine is 
altogether too long for our present purpose, and is not 
called for. An outline can be given. The primary idea 
is that there is a great store of merit against which the 
Church can draw, and thus excuse individuals from the 
performance of certain penitential acts. This store of 
merit consists of the atoning works of Christ and the 
good works of saints and martyrs. 

In accordance with this view, in early times, the 
Catholic Church occasionally remitted temporal penalties 
to such as performed some meritorious act, such as tak- 
ing part in the crusades, or furnishing money for some 
purpose required by the Church. This quite naturally 
led to abuse, for whenever the Church wished for money 
it had only to proclaim an indulgence. The multitude 
being ignorant, they quite naturally confounded this 
remission of temporal penalties and the pardon of sins; 
and, on the other hand, the agents of the Church ap- 
pointed to collect this money, being paid according to 
the amount collected, were unscrupulous enough to play 



362 



TIIK I5IBLE COMPANION. 



on the credulity of the people, and further, as much as 
possible, this error. 

It was against such an abuse as tins that Luther first 
protested. Pope Leo X desired money to improve St. 
Peter's Church in Rome, and for other purposes. lie, 
therefore, proclaimed an indulgence in Germany. The 
commission was issued to the archbishop of Magdeburg, 
who. in turn, intrusted the raising of the money to the 
Dominican monks. This order speedily had their 
agents through the country, and, amongst others, was 
the famous John Tctzel. All accounts agree that he went 
to the most shameless extremes to get money. Indeed, 
the Council of Trent condemned just such claims as he 
made. Tetzel proclaimed that all punishments, present 
and future, human and divine, were under the control 
of the pope. He even went so far as to teach that the 
indulgences he offered were more efficient in delivering 
men from punishment than the merits of Christ. 

This proceeding aroused the indignation of Luther. 
He wrote out ninety-five propositions in regard to indul- 
gencies, and publicly maintained them at Wittenberg. 
In these he plainly affirmed that the pontiff was a 
partaker in this guilty transaction. This was the be- 
ginning of the controversy which resulted in Luther 
withdrawing from the Catholic Church, and the organ- 
ization of a new Church. Had Leo been prudent this 
breach could have been healed at the very start. Luther 
did not deny the right of the pontiff to remit the pen- 
alty imposed by the Church at Rome. He did deny the 
power of any earthly ruler to remit the penalties affixed 
by God to the violation of moral law. He claimed that 
such penalties were removed by a pardon granted by 
God alone on certain conditions. Leo need not have 



THE KEFOKMATION. 



363 



taken sides. This very matter had often been debated 
before, but the popes were prudent enough to leave it 
undecided. 

But it was not to be so in this case. Nearly all Ger- 
many listened with gladness to Luther's utterances. 
The Dominican monks, to which order Tetzel belonged, 
took up the discussion. They were high in favor at 
Rome. Luther was summoned by the pope to appear at 
Rome and justify his conduct. At this juncture Fred- 
erick the Wise, elector of Saxony, who was a friend of 
Luther's, interposed with a claim that the cause of 
Luther belonged to the jurisdiction of a German tri- 
bunal. The pope yielded, and sent Cardinal Cajetan 
(who was the papal representative, or legate, as such 
persons were called) to the diet at Augsburg, to attend 
to this matter. He could not have made a poorer selec- 
tion, because Cajetan was a Dominican monk, which 
order was an interested party. 

The only argument he had to present to Luther 
was a demand that he forthwith renounce his published 
opinions, and humbly confess himself in the wrong. 
This Luther firmly, but respectfully, declined to do. He 
respected the authority of the pope, but appealed from 
his present decision to one that he should form when a 
council had met and debated this important point. Per- 
ceiving his error in sending Cajetan, the pope next in- 
trusted this mission to another hand. The new legate 
was a man by the name of Miltitz, and was a very dif- 
ferent person than Cajetan. He praised Luther's abil- 
ities, threw the blame of the whole affair upon Tetzel, 
and persuaded Luther to write a submissive letter to 
the pope, promising to drop all discussion on this point 

if his opponents would do the same. 
22 



THE BIBLE COMl'AXIOX. 



In all probability Luther would have kept his part 
of this agreement. Unfortunately, or perhaps we had 
better say forfimately, his opponents would not let the 
matter drop. Cajetan and the Dominicans were still 
high in favor at Rome, they wished to sec Luther hum- 
bled. Their endeavors were seconded from an un- 
expected quarter. A certain Dr. Eckius, a somewhat 
celebrated theologian, had been engaged in a public 
debate with Luther concerning the authority and su- 
premacy of the pope. In this debate he was badly 
worsted. He set out at once for Rome, bent on ruining 
Luther. He joined his entreaties with those of Cajetan. 
As a result, the pope issued a bull ordering Luther's 
works to be burned, and commanding him to recant his 
errors within sixty days or be excommunicated. 

Probably all are aware of Luther's answer. As the 
pope had ordered his works to be burned, he replied by 
publiely burning the bull issued by the pope and the 
decretals and canons relating to the pope's jurisdiction; 
but, at the same time, he appealed to the decision of a 
council. This bold step of Luther's was speedily fol- 
lowed by his excommunication. Though the views of 
Luther had found many warm advocates all over Ger- 
many, yet it had hitherto been largely a personal quarrel ; 
but events had now assumed such a shape that this 
question suddenly became of national importance. 

Charles I of Spain and V of Austria was elected 
emperor of Germany in 1-">19. Leo, finding that excom- 
munication produced no effect on Luther, urged the new 
emperor to punish him. On the other hand, the Elector 
Frederick, to whom Charles was largely indebted for his 
election, used every endeavor to protect Luther. Instead 
of proceeding arbitrarily against the reformer, Charles 



THE REFORMATION. 



365 



ordered him to appear before the imperial diet, which was 
about to meet at Worms, and furnished him a safe conduct. 
Accordingly, in April, 1521, Luther made his mem or a Me 
defense before the diet of Worms. Both menaces and en- 
treaties were employed to induce him to recant. They were 
equally in vain. Luther would neither recant nor change 
his course of conduct, unless convinced by the word of 
God, or the dictates of reason, that he was in error. He 
was permitted to retire in safety, but after his departure 
he was declared by the diet an enemy of the Holy Roma n 
Empire. 

He was now in great personal danger, but his friend, 
the elector, probably with the approval of Charles, had 
him seized by some masked men and carried away to a 
castle at Wartenburg, though this was known to but 
few. Here he passed ten months in retirement, using 
his time in the translation of the Bible. Luther left 
Wartenburg without the knowledge of his friends. He 
was tired of confinement, and feared that some of his 
friends were acting hastity and unwisely, and, indeed, 
there was good reason to be apprehensive on this point. 
But the Bible was now translated into German and given 
to the public. This translation did much to open the 
eyes of its many readers to the truths of the gospel. 

In the next few years efforts were constantly made 
by the papal authorities to induce the civil authorities 
to execute the decree of the diet of Worms against Luther. 
But the German princes as firmly insisted that a gen- 
eral council must meet to decide what was truth before 
they would do anything to execute this decree. The 
emperor himself seems to have been desirous of enforc- 
ing the decree against Luther, but his time was so en- 
tirely taken up with affairs of state in Spain and 



3<36 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Austria, that he could not give this matter the requisite 
attention. The diet that met in Spire in 1526 re- 
solved to present a petition to the emperor desiring 
him to summon a general council, but they resolved 
thai in the meantime each state in the German Empire 
should be at liberty to manage ecclesiastical affairs in a 
way they thought best. 

The progress of the Reformation was greatly hindered 
by disputes and failures to agree among the reform- 
ers, w hich we must now point out. We have shown the 
position of the Catholic Church in regard to the presence 
of the body of Christ in the bread and wine of the com- 
munion. A great discussion sprang up on this point and 
wrought great evil. Luther and his immediate followers, 
though rejecting the doctrine of the Church of Rome, yet 
contended that in some inexplainable way the body of 
Christ was united with the elements of the communion. 
But Zwingli, in Switzerland, and Carlostadt, Luther's 
colleague, held the ideas that the majority of the Pro- 
testant world does to-day — that is, that the bread and 
wine are simply emblems of Christ's body. The discus- 
sions on this point, to a considerable extent, divided the 
friends of the incipient Reformation, and thus endan- 
gered the movement itself. 

We all know the dividing line between enthusiasm 
and fanaticism is narrow, and men are prone to go from 
one extreme to the other. The peasants of Germany, 
who had long groaned under many evils, suddenly broke 
out in armed rebellion against all law, and ravaged the 
country with fire and sword. The evils under which 
they labored were, of course, very great, but the remedy 
they proposed was lawlessness. At first this Avar (called 
the war of the peasants) had no religious bearing, but it 



THE REFORMATION. 



367 



soon assumed such a character. Their leaders clamored 
for a new religion, and claimed to be inspired b}^ the 
Holy Ghost. It was quite natural that the excesses 
committed in this war should be charged against the 
Reformation, and thus the cause suffered by the unwise 
action of some fanatics. These troubles were finally 
quelled by force of arms in 1525. 

Still another event served to more sharply define the 
position of the reformers, and compelled many of the 
petty states composing the German nation to declare 
either for or against the Reformation. Frederick the 
Wise, of Saxony, passed away, and was succeeded by his 
brother, John. Frederick, though a good friend of Lu- 
ther, had opposed any radical measures looking to a sep- 
aration from the Catholic Church. John, on the other 
hand, directed Luther and Melancthon to draw up a 
body of laws relating to ecclesiastical affairs, the method 
of public worship, and defining the rank, offices, and 
revenues of the priesthood— in short, to provide for the 
establishment within his dominions of a new Church, 
independent of Rome. This new law was promulgated 
throughout Saxony in 1527. This example was at once 
followed by those princes friendly to the Reformation, 
but served the purpose of repelling those who clung to 
the traditions of the past, and did not wish to withdraw 
from Rome. 

We mast recall that the diet that met at Spire in 
1526 allowed each state of the empire to manage its 
ecclesiastical affairs as it saw fit. But Charles V had 
now so arranged his weighty affairs that he had more 
leisure to devote to the state of religion in Germany. 
He accordingly assembled another diet at Spire in 1529, 
by which the former decree was revoked, and changes of 



368 



THE BIBLE COMPANION'. 



any kind in the established religion were forbidden until 
a church council could meet; but for more than ten 
years the reformers had demanded in vain the assem- 
bling of a council. It seemed evident that their wishes 
would not be granted. The effect, therefore, of this new 
decree would be to put a stop to all progress. Accord- 
in.!,, sucli of the Germanic stales as were open and 
acknowledged friends of the Reformation entered a sol- 
emn 'protest against this decree, and from this step comes 
our word Protestants. 

This protest was duly presented to the emperor, who 
was then in Spain. He was at first somewhat angered 
to find some of the states so bold as to oppose his will, 
but finally he decided to call a diet, to meet at Augs- 
burg, to settle, if possible, this question, which was caus- 
ing so much trouble in his empire, in the meantime 
urging the pope to summon a council. In order that the 
emperor and the diet might have the means of judging 
the case on its merits, Luther and Melancthon drew up 
a statement of their belief, Luther furnishing the points 
and Melancthon arranging them. This constitutes the 
famous Augsburg Confession, which to-day forms tl^e 
principal part of the creed of the Lutheran denomi- 
nation. 

As the diet of Augsburg (1530) forms a very impor- 
tant epoch in the history of the Reformation, it is well 
to pause a moment and see what progress had been 
made in other countries .besides Germany. In Sweden 
the Reformation made its way quite rapidly. The reign- 
ing king was friendly to the movement. The Swedish 
translation of the Bible was allowed to be distributed 
among the people. Public discussions concerning the 
relative merits of the old and the new faith were held. 



THE REFORMATION. 



369 



In Denmark, also, the new views made their way. The 
reigning king, of whom not much good can be related, 
was, nevertheless, willing that his people should do as 
they pleased about religion, and even invited Lutheran 
ministers from Germany to his kingdom. However, it 
seems that in both Sweden and Denmark the bishops 
had usurped so many of the privileges of royalty that 
a conflict between them and the reigning power was inev- 
itable, sooner or later. 

We have seen in the preceding chapter that at an 
early day there were many people in France who did 
not accept the views of the Catholic Church. The queen 
of JN T avarre, sister of the reigning king, looked with favor 
on the Reformation, and protected such of her subjects as 
embraced the views of Luther. She it was who protected 
Calvin. But during the lifetime of Francis Protestant- 
ism made but slow progress in that country. We have 
referred to Zwingli's labors in Switzerland. It is enough 
to say that the Reformation was well advanced in that 
country; in short, we may say that the cause of relig- 
ious liberty was making great progress. In nearly every 
country in Europe it was making some advance ; but 
important results followed from the meeting of the diet 
at Augsburg, to which we will now return. 

The diet met in June, 1530, and the important ques- 
tion of how to compose the religious difficulties of the 
empire was the first considered. The confession which 
Luther and Melancthon had drawn up was read to the 
diet. It was signed by five states of the empire and two 
imperial cities. It served the good purpose of making 
clearly known the doctrines of the reformers. Some, 
who knew little or nothing as to what these beliefs were, 
were delighted with the purity and simplicity of the 



370 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



statements, and were satisfied that Luther and his fellow- 
laborers were innocent and good men. Having presented 
the Protestant side, the Catholic party brought in their 
reply. The Emperor Charles, who was present in pel"* 
son, and who was devoted to the interests of Home, now 
ehdeayored to summarily end the dispute by demanding 
that the Protestants should assent to the doctrines con- 
tained in the reply and yield submission to Rome, and 
he prohibited any further discussion. 

He was mistaken in the temper of his subjects. They 
would not bo silenced. Though refused a copy of the 
reply, they wr.it;> out an answer to such points as they 
could remember, and presented it to the emperor. Thus, 
we see, that the differences between the Catholic and the 
Protestant party had become only more pronounced since 
the meeting of this diet, which was called to compose 
them. Attempts were made on the one hand to induce 
Charles to declare war on the Protestants, and on the other 
to induce the Protestants to submit. But, as all meth- 
ods of putting an end to the debates proved unavailing, 
the diet, in November of 1530, during the absence of the 
most prominent of the Protestant princes, passed a severe 
decree, commanding the Protestants to renew their alle- 
giance to Rome, denounced all changes made in Church 
government and discipline, and reaffirmed the decree of 
the diet of Worms. 

Several results conspired to render this decree inop* 
erative. In the first place, the firm attitude of the Pro- 
testant princes, who banded themselves together to de- 
fend their liberties by force ; in the next place the ernperor 
sorely needed the assistance of the Protestant states to de- 
fend his empire against the Turks, with whom war way 
imminent. He wished them, also, to acknowledge the 



THE REFORMATION. 



371 



election of his brother Ferdinand as king of the Romans. 
Accordingly a treaty was signed between the emperor 
and the Protestant princes, in 1533, at Nuremberg. In 
this the emperor annulled the edict of Worms and 
Augsburg, and allowed the Lutherans free and unmo- 
lested exercise of their religion. In return for these 
favors the states agreed to support the emperor in his 
wars against the Turks, and agreed to acknowledge his 
brother Ferdinand king of the Romans. 

As this peace thus entered into extended over several 
years, we must note the progress of the Reformation in 
other parts of Europe. In France the Reformation was 
checked by the persecution of the reigning king, Francis ; 
yet the great abilities of Calvin advanced the cause. He 
published in 1535 his great work, "Institutes of the 
Christian Religion." This presented in a systematic 
way the opinions of the reformers scattered throughout 
Central and Western Europe. We will have more to 
say of Calvin and his work later. We must note the 
quarrel between Henry VIII, of England, and the pope, 
which finally resulted in the establishment of the Church 
of England. The labors of Wycliffe, especially the 
translation of the Bible into English, had done much to 
free the people of England from a slavish superstition 
to Rome; but the causes leading to the final outbreak 
had at first but little promise of good. 

Henry had married Catherine of Aragon, widow of 
his brother Arthur. This lady was also aunt of Charles 
V of Germany. Time passed ; and, from a variety of 
causes, the king wished a divorce. He professed to have 
some conscientious scruples because he had married the 
widow of his brother. Probably other reasons were more 
to his mind, chief of which was his desire to marry Anne 



372 



THE BIHLE COMPANION. 



Boleyn. The pope, Clement VII, was asked to decide 
whether Henry's marriage with Catherine was legal or 
not. This appeal greatly perplexed the pope, lie was 
afraid of offending Charles it* he decided the marriage of 
his aunt illegal ; and, on the other hand, he was afraid 
Henry would renounce all allegiance to Rome if he did 
not so declare it. lie, therefore, avoided, under one pre- 
text or another, to give a positive answer. 

For years he played this double game, though given 
very plainly to understand that the king was bent on 
divorce. In this state of affairs, Henry appealed to the 
European universities for their opinions. The most of 
them decided that the marriage was unlawful. In the 
meantime, in hopes of moving the pope, several blows 
had been struck at the power of the clergy in England. 
As early as 1531 the clergy had been compelled to ac- 
knowledge the king the "protector and supreme head of 
the Church." Other measures followed. In 1533 the 
king and the clergy of England took the matter of di- 
vorce in their own hands, defied Rome and declared his 
marriage with Catherine void. The next year the pope 
decided the divorce illegal, excommunicating Henry and 
absolved the people from their oath of allegiance. The 
blow fell powerless. Parliament decided the pope had 
no more right in England than any other bishop, and 
thus was the separation of the English Church from the 
Catholic Church brought about. 

We must also note an outbreak of fanaticism which 
did much harm to the cause of the Reformation. Masses 
of people are far too apt to be swayed by impulse, and 
to pass from one extreme to the other. When the 
Reformation dawned, giving the people the Bible in a 
familiar tongue, announcing its revelations as the highest 



THE EEFOEMATIOjST. 



373 



law, and proclaiming freedom of thought, it is, perhaps, 
not strange that fanatics sprang up in various parts of 
Central and Western Europe, who were dissatisfied with 
the advances made under Luther and other leaders, and, 
pressing forward, passed to the other extreme, and were 
in favor of subverting all laws except such as com- 
mended themselves to their own misguided zeal. These 
various sects differed much among themselves. Some of 
them were unquestionably swayed by pure and gentle 
motives, but others were as surely moved by a blind and 
fanatical impulse which boded no good to the cause of 
Christianity. 

On one point, however, they were agreed. This was 
in reference to baptism. All candidates for admission 
into their ranks were again baptized ; they were there- 
fore called Anabaptists, the word meaning to re-baptize. 
Thus this word came to be the common designation of 
many sects which differed greatly among themselves. 
The great body of these sects were subsequently modi- 
fied in their beliefs, and united in one harmonious whole 
by the labors of Menno Simon, and in modern times are 
known as Mennonites. 1 We have to describe the singu- 
lar outbreak of some sects of the Anabaptists in 1533. 

The Anabaptists had been largely in the "War of the 
Peasants," to which we have referred, and in which they 
were finally defeated in 1525. Preachers of this doc- 
trine, however, wandered throughout the country, keep- 
ing alive the fanatical spirit which had inspired the 
previous outbreak. In 1533 they commenced concen- 
trating in the city of Munster. They finally seized the 
arsenal and public buildings, chose a leader in the per- 
son of one John Matthias, and organized the kingdom 

1 Page 414. 



374 



THE BIKLE COMPANION". 



of " New Jerusalem." Count Waldeck besieged the city, 
and Matthias was slain in a sally. John Boccold, under 
the title of King John, was raised to the "Throne of 
David." His reign degenerated into a most licentious 
one. The obligations of the marriage state were dis- 
pensed with, freedom of divorce and all manner of crimes 
ensued. This "kingdom" was finally overthrown in 
1535. All can sec how much the Reformation suffered 
from such conduct as this. 

We will now resume the thread of our history. The 
treaty of Nuremberg was signed in 1532. Several cities 
and provinces of Germany, which had not before dared 
to acknowledge themselves favorable toward the Refor- 
mation, now felt themselves at liberty to do so. It was 
further clearly seen that the only hopes of terminating 
the religious disputes of Germany lay in the meeting of 
a general council. The pope, for various reasons, did 
not wish a council to meet, Clement YII passed away 
in 1534, and was succeeded by Paul III. He expressed 
a willingness to assemble a council in Mantua. This is 
an Italian city, and the Protestants felt certain every- 
thing in such a council would be decided just as the pope 
desired. They therefore met at Smalcald, in 1537, and 
protested against having to abide by the decision of such 
a council. In anticipation, however, of such a meeting, 
Luther drew up another presentation of their articles of 
faith. 

This council was postponed, and never met. In the 
years that followed many schemes w r ere proposed by the 
emperor, on the one hand, and Protestant princes on the 
other, looking for the restoration of concord and unity. 
These schemes came to naught, and largely because the 
pope discountenanced any plan which tended to reduce 



THE REFORMATION. 



375 



his authority. In 1541 a somewhat famous controversy 
was held at Worms between representatives of the Prot- 
estants and Catholics. This conference was assembled 
by the emperor, regardless of the pope's wish. Calvin 
came from Strasburg to be present, and at this confer- 
ence Melancthon disputed in public for three days with 
Eckius, the same person with whom Luther had his dis- 
cussion in 1519. This conference was adjourned to the 
diet that met at Ratisbon, where another scheme of 
compromise was debated. The only conclusion reached 
was to wait the decision of a general council. 

Twenty-five years had now passed since the com- 
mencement of the rupture between Luther and the Church 
of Rome. During all this time efforts had been made 
to induce the pope to summon a council to decide the 
merits of the Reformation. On one pretense or another, 
this had been denied. The movement had now become 
so pronounced, and the line of demarcation between the 
Catholics and the Protestants had become so apparent, 
that no council, summoned by mere papal authority 
alone, composed only of representatives favorable to 
Catholicism, and meeting in some foreign city, would 
satisfy the wishes of the reformers. Yet this was what 
the pope now offered. He proposed to assemble a coun- 
cil at Trent, Austria, to consider the Reformation. The 
Protestant members of the German diet objected to the 
place of meeting. They demanded a council not subject 
directly to the pope, and demanded that it meet in some 
city where it would be in a measure free from his influ- 
ence. This protest met with no favor from the pope. 
The council was summoned to meet, and the emperor 
determined to enforce its decrees by force of arms. The 
Protestant princes, therefore, prepared for resistance. 



376 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Iii the midst of these exciting events occurred the death 
of Luther, on the 18th of February, 1546. 

The famous Council of Trent met in December, 1545. 
Its decrees were 1 uniformly in favor of the position 
assumed all along by the Catholic party. The Protest- 
ant members of the diet refused to accept them, and thus 
war arose between these states and the emperor, for he 
had determined thai the Protestants must submit to the 
council. At iirst the imperial forces carried everything 
before them. The Protestant army was defeated, largely 
by the treachery of Maurice, duke of Saxony, who took 
this opportunity of invading the territory of his uncle, 
the elector, John Frederick, one of the principal leaders 
on the Protestant side. The elector was made a pris- 
oner, his territory taken from him, and given as a 
reward to Maurice. The other leader of the Protestant 
Cause (Philip, landgrave of Hesse) was induced to sur- 
render to the emperor, who then, in violation of his own 
agreement, detained him in prison. 

Thus the Protestant cause seemed ruined. The diet 
met at Augsburg, and the emperor again demanded that 
the Protestant princes agree to accept the decisions of 
the council, still in session at Trent. The greater part 
of them could do nothing but submit. At this point the 
council, or a majority of its members, adjourned from 
Trent to meet in Bologna, the cause given for this step 
being that the plague had broken out in the former city. 
This removal was very much against the wishes of the 
emperor, and at his request many of the German and 
Spanish bishops remained in council at Trent. As 
Charles would not recognize the council at Bologna, the 
council was finally indefinitely adjourned in 1549, with- 
out finishing the discussion of the cause for which they 



THE REFORMATION. 



377 



were assembled. In the meantime, in order that there 
might be some system in ecclesiastical affairs, rules of 
conduct were drawn up by the emperor's order. As 
they Avere to serve a temporary purpose only, they were 
called the Interim. 

From the circumstance of their origin, we would 
expect them to be, as they were, favorable to Catholic 
methods of procedure, but they pleased neither party. 
They were, however, solemnly promulgated by the em- 
peror as the rules to be followed. Their enforcement 
led to scenes of violence, suffering, and bloodshed. The 
elector of Saxony, who had done so much to bring about 
this state of affairs, now professed to be neutral in regard 
to the Interim, and summoned the nobility of Saxony, 
with Melancthon, to meet in council. Conferences were 
accordingly held at Leipsic and other cities. Melanc- 
thon's peculiar temperament, his timidity and dread of 
strife, unfitted him for leadership, and the conferences 
produced divisions among the Protestants which might 
easily have proved fatal to the cause. 

About this time Pope Paul III died, and was suc- 
ceeded by Julius III. The emperor who seems to have 
been desirous of terminating the religious strifes, ear- 
nestly solicited the reconvening of the Council of Trent. 
The new pope agreed to this. The emperor accordingly 
called a diet to meet at Augsburg, in order to once more 
receive the assurance of the Protestant states that they 
would abide by its decision. As the states were power- 
less their consent was given. Maurice, of Saxony, how- 
ever, who earnestly wished to gain the esteem of his 
Protestant subjects, which he had lost by the base be- 
trayal of their cause, gave his consent on certain con- 
ditions, which, had they been fully met, would have 



378 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



gone far to remove the objections which the Protestants 
felt towards this council. 

The Council of Trent reconvened in 1551. To judge 
by outward appearances it seemed as if the Reformation 
must soon be crushed. The Protestant states were vir- 
tually at the mercy of the emperor, who stood ready to 
enforce the decree of the council, which would undoubt- 
edly be adverse to them. This was the darkest hour 
before the dawn. Maurice, elector of Saxony, who, by 
his treachery, had nearly wrecked the Protestant cau.se, 
had been in secret plotting against the emperor. He 
had urgently requested the liberation of Philip, land- 
grave <>f Ilesse, whose imprisonment we have noted, 
which request had been refused. He was also convinced 
that Charles had designs against the liberties of the 
German princes. He had, therefore, in secret, formed 
an alliance against the emperor. A number of German 
states, and the king of France, had agreed to assist him. 

Accordingly, in the summer of 1552, he gathered to- 
gether a powerful army, and suddenly appeared before 
Innspruck, where the emperor was encamped with a 
much smaller force. The emperor's army was defeated, 
he himself barely escaped capture. At the same time 
the king of France invaded and took possession of Lor- 
raine. The emperor was totally unprepared for the war 
which thus suddenly burst upon him. He was ill with 
the gout, and poorly fitted for active command. He, ac- 
cordingly, was ready to make peace on any terms, and 
in August of the same year the treaty of Passau was 
signed, which the German Protestants regard as the 
basis of their religious liberty. By the terms of this 
treaty the rule of faith, called Interim, was declared null 
and void. Each party w r as guaranteed the free exercise 



THE REFORMATION. 



379 



of their religion if they could not amicably agree on 
some common basis. Nothing further was said about the 
Council of Trent. The terms of this treaty were re- 
enacted in the diet of Augsburg, which met in 1555, and 
thus the Reformation was established on a firm and 
lasting basis in Germany after about thirty-five years 
of almost continual struggle. 

We have now space for only a brief notice of the two 
great divisions of the reformers. The sole intention of 
Luther, and his fellow-laborers, at first was a reformation 
within the Church. It was not their intention to estab- 
lish a new church; but we have seen how they had 
been driven to take this very step. As early as the year 
1530, when the confession of Augsburg was read to the 
diet there assembled, this movement had taken shape. 
In course of time, by a process quite natural, this new 
church came to be called the Lutheran Church. To the 
first confession there was subsequently added other state- 
ments of belief, such as the articles of Smalcald, con- 
taining, however, nothing new in substance. There were, 
of course, divisions "on minor points among the Luther- 
ans, but they had been compelled to present a united 
front, and, consequently, when the treaty of Passau 
closed this long period of dispute, they emerged a com- 
pact and well organized body. It is not our intention to 
give a full outline of the beliefs of this church. The 
genius and influence of Luther impressed itself very 
strongly on his followers. 

We must now notice the Reformed Churches, which 
include all the evangelical Protestant Churches, which 
sprung up during and since the Reformation, other than 
the Lutheran Church, and which was the form of church 
polity embraced by the friends of the Reformation in 

23 



380 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Europe, outside of Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, in 
which countries Lutheranism was largely adopted. We 
have in several places referred to the labors of Zwingli 
in Switzerland. Independent of Luther, before the latter 
had commenced his work, Zwingli was advocating the 
necessity of a change in church government and religious 
view s from those of Rome. When the movement inaugu- 
rated by Luther began to attract attention it was found 
there was a difference of opinion between these two emi- 
nent men. The conservatism of Luther led him to 
look with leniency upon many customs of the Catholic 
Church, which Zwingli was in favor of abolishing once 
I'm- .ill. But the main point of difference, however, lay 
in reference to the Lord's Supper. 

We have already pointed out the difference in views 
of these two leaders on this point. Attempts were made 
to bring the two to an agreement, but they were fruitless. 
Zwingli was killed in battle in 1530, in the same year 
that the confession of Augsburg did so much to unite the 
Lutherans in Germany. After his death attempts were 
further made to bring about a union; but the friends of 
the Reformation, outside of Germany, were now greatly 
influenced by Calvin, who differed from the Luther- 
ans in some respects. Indeed, Calvin succeeded in exert- 
ing as great an influence on the Reformed Churches as 
Luther did on the church that bears his name. Calvin 
was a great man, very clear in his views, and able to 
state them strongly. The key-note of his system of 
theology is found in the doctrine of the Divine Sover- 
eignty, held as a religious tenet. He taught that God 
predestined all things. Applying this to the salva- 
tion of man, he taught that those who are redeemed from 
the bondage of sin, and made pure and white, experience 



THE REFORMATION. 



381 



those blessed results, because God saw fit to decree that 
they should. He further taught, in reference to such de- 
crees, that God was influenced in making them by noth- 
ing outside of Himself, but on His own good pleasure 
alone. This view was not acceptable in all its bearings 
to the Lutheran divines. 1 

Calvin may be regarded as the founder of the Presby- 
terian form of church government. John Knox, who so 
greatly influenced the religious life of Scotland, was one 
of his disciples. We shall see in another essay that the 
theology of Calvin is also the basis of belief of a num- 
ber of church denominations who are not Presbyterians. 
In process of time, however, many of the views once held 
by Calvin have been modified by other views. Explain 
it as you will this system of faith nerved its adherents 
to dare and suffer with unflinching fortitude in defense 
of religious liberty. It cheered the people of Holland 
in their long and unequal contest with Philip, of Spain, 
and inspired the Pilgrims, when they ventured forth on 
a stormy sea, to confront unknown dangers in a new 
world. 

Thus we see that the sixteenth century was a period 
of great religious movements. It Avas a formative period, 
and, like all such periods, it was a time of discussion 
and intellectual activity. The thunder of its stormy 
battles have nearly all died away ; the lightnings are dis- 
tant and dim. As the Protestant Churches recede in 
time from the movements that gave them birth they 
learn that they have much in common. They are in- 
sensibly drawing nearer together and becoming one, as 
Christ prayed that they might. 

"Page 413. 



382 THE BIBLE COMPANION. 

Religious Denominations. 




O two minds arc constituted just alike, and 
probably no two have the same conception 
of religion; but organization of some form 
is necessary to all advance, and so in the 



course of time have grown up what we call the different 
religious denominations. Our Christian readers are 
probably members of some denominational church. 
Many who are not professing Christians are prepossessed 
in favor of some denomination. In an army some are 
cavalry, some heavy artillery, some infantry, but all are 
moving against a common enemy. In the great army 
of Christian believers some are organized as one body 
or church, some as another, but all, with the Bible as a 
starting point, are endeavoring to make man better and 
bring him to God. 

Let us learn, therefore, what we can of the principal 
Christian sects of this country; and in this matter we 
aim to let each denomination speak for itself, gathering 
our information from the writings of acknowledged au- 
thorities in the church spoken of. We will notice that 
the points wherein the various sects agree are infinitely 
important for man; that the general objects of each and 
all are the same — to fit man for heaven and to advance 
religion in the earth. We opine that when each human 
soul comes to the river of death that encircles the 
world — a river across which no bridge leads — each must 
go down into the waters and ford it alone, and emerges 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



385 



on the other shore, it will be a question of very little 
moment as a member of what organization he made the 
good fight. If such he has made, the words "well 
done" will fall on his ears, and an innumerable multi- 
tude, who in all ages and climes, of all nationalities, of 
different religions as well as denominations, felt after the 
Lord and happily found Him, will welcome him into the 
homes of the blessed. 

ADVENTISTS. 

This is the name given to a body of believers from 
the opinions they hold in reference to the still future 
visible coming of Christ. This is often called the second 
coming of Christ. It will be found that most Christians 
believe in the second coming of Christ; but Adventists 
teach that the time of this coming is known or revealed 
in the Bible as one that will take place at some defi- 
nitely revealed time, and that time is near at hand. 
Many of them fix on some day as the one on which 
Christ will come; others (and these are the majority at 
the present day) simply hold that this time is near at 
hand — in fact, that it may be expected at any time. 

It will thus be seen that the Adventists, as a body, 
do not dissent from the great leading doctrines of the 
evangelical portions of the Christian Church. Their 
theory is not one of modern origin, but had advocates at 
an early day. Questions relating to a speedy coming 
agitated, and, to some extent, divided the early Church. 
Some of the epistles of Paul were written to quiet dis- 
cussion on this point; in fact, this subject has always 
boon an attractive one to certain classes of people. Some 
of the crusades were undertaken from a desire to prepare 
for this coming. In the tenth century the belief was 



386 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



very general that Christ was to come some time in that 
century. From time to time in the past some student 
of prophecy has proclaimed the speedy coming of Christ, 
in many cases fixing the date. 

William -Miller, of Pittstield, Mass., gave a great 
impetus to this belief some iifty years ago. After care- 
ful study of the prophecies, he came to the conclusion 
thai Christ was to come in April, 1843. He began to 
travel and lecture on the subject in 1833. A great many 
persons believed in his conclusions. Since then other 
dates have been set. At the present day, as a general 
thing, the Adventists adopt a waiting position. They 
wait for more light on the import and dates of the 
prophetic periods, which they still firmly believe are of 
divine origin, and to be understood by the Church in 
God's own appointed time; but they give many reasons 
for regarding this coming as near at hand. Some of the 
Adventists think that the seventh day of the week, or 
Saturday, should be observed as the day of rest, instead 
of Sunday; but they are not agreed on this point. 

THE BAPTISTS. 

This is a name given to a very large number of influ- 
ential denominations. It is given them on account of 
the views they hold in regard to baptism. This calls 
for a little explanation. Baptism is the application of 
water as the sign of the reception of a person into the 
visible Christian Church. Taking the whole Christian 
world into view, we find that several ditferent modes of 
baptism are employed, and difference is made as to the 
age of the person to whom the rite is administered. The 
different modes of baptism are mainly three. The first 
is by immersion, where the whole body is covered by 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



387 



water; the second is by pouring, where the water is 
poured on to the head of the person receiving the rite, 
and the third is by sprinkling. A little water is sprin- 
kled by the hand on the person being baptized. 

We learn that the Latin, or the Roman Catholic 
Church, favors pouring three times, applied in the name 
of the three persons of the Trinity. It, however, admits 
of sprinkling or immersion, and at a very early day im- 
mersion was the chosen way. In this country, at least, 
sprinkling is the method employed. The Greek Church 
requires immersion, three times administered in the 
name of each person of the Trinity. The Russian 
branch, however, admit of sprinkling. The Church of 
England originally required that the child be dipped 
three times in the water, unless the health of the child 
render it un advisable. This custom has mostly given 
way to sprinkling. The various Protestant churches, 
other than the different Baptist sects, hold any form of 
baptism to be valid. In practice, immersion among 
them is rare, pouring more common, but sprinkling is 
the method most employed. 

The Baptist sects take the stand that the only valid 
baptism of a person is that of immersion. They think 
that this is the proper meaning of the word rendered 
baptize in the Bible. They also think it proven, from 
the language used in the Bible and the statements made 
by early writers, that this was the method of baptism 
employed by the early Church. Another point of differ- 
ence is to be found in the person baptized. The Greek 
Church, the Catholic Church, and the Church of Eng- 
land baptize little infants as soon as they are old enough 
to receive it. A great many Protestant denominations 
permit it, some require it, others allow it. Baptists 



388 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



claim that the only proper persons to be baptized are 
those who have repented of their sins and purpose to 
lead a new life, and hence refuse to baptize children 
before they are old enough to understand the importance 
of the act, or before they have given satisfactory evi- 
dence of being fit persons to receive the same. 

What we have thus far had to say is true of all the 
Baptists generally; but from this point they split up 
into several different denominations. This division is 
along the line of doctrinal points. What is known as 
the Baptist Church in this country corresponds with 
what is known as the Particular Baptists in England. 
This forms by far the most numerous body of Baptists, 
and is the church meant when the word Baptist is used 
without further qualification. The father of this church 
in America was Roger Williams. Doubtless all are 
familiar with the persecutions he underwent, Tie was 
the founder of the state of Rhode Island. .From this 
humble beginning the church has spread very rapidly. 

This church is Calvinistic in theology, though the ten- 
dency is to modify some of the points of this doctrine. In 
government they are Congregational; each local church 
is regarded as competent to manage its own affairs, 
discipline its members, and elect its ministers. The 
churches are associated together for counsel and advice. 
They practice what is known as close communion. From 
the importance they attach to immersion, they can not 
regard persons who have been baptized by any other 
mode as, strictly speaking, members of Christ's Church, 
and so do not invite such persons to partake with them 
of the Lord's Supper. As a denomination, they favor 
liberal education, and are active in foreign missionary 
work. 



KELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



389 



FKEE-WILL BAPTISTS. 

It may not be so generally known that the Baptist 
Church in England is divided into two classes, the 
General and the Particular Baptists. There are two 
divisions in this country also, the Regular Baptists 
and the Free-will Baptists. This division is on a doc- 
trinal point. As we have stated, the Regular Baptists 
are Calvinistic in belief; that is, they hold the views 
of that eminent reformer, Calvin. Calvin taught, amongst 
other articles, that Christ's death was not for all men, 
but only for those who were elected to be saved. Right 
here is where the Free-will Baptists dissent from their 
brethren. They adopt the views of Arminius (hence we 
say they are Arminian in theology), and hold that Christ 
died for all, that all believers will be saved, and that all 
men are able to believe, and, as they thus believe in the 
freedom of the will, they are called Free-will Baptists. 
This is the same position as that of the General Baptists 
in England. 

This church was organized in Durham, New Hamp- 
shire, in 1780. This division would have doubtless 
occurred sooner or later any way. In fact, among 
Baptist churches previous to that date, there was con- 
siderable difference of opinion on this point. The im- 
mediate occasion of the separation was the stand taken 
by the followers of the Rev. Mr. Randall, a very earnest, 
eloquent preacher, who ably upheld these views. In 
government, this church is also Congregational. They 
of course hold to the same views in regard to baptism as 
the Regular Baptists. In regard to communion, however, 
they are not as strict. They invite to partake with them 
of the communion those who seem to be Christians, the 



390 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



question of baptism not being considered. They are de- 
cidedly liberal and progressive, and friendly to other 
demoninations. 

It is somewhat singular that, on this question of com- 
munion, these two great branches of the Baptist Church, 
in this country and in England, take exactly opposite 
views. The Free-will Baptists of this country commune 
with Christians even if they have not been immersed; 
but their brethren, the General Baptists of England, 
will not — they commune only with those who have been 
immersed. On the other hand, while the Regular 
Baptists of this country practice close communion, their 
brethren, the Particular Baptists of England, do not 
insist on immersion, but extend the invitation to Chris- 
tians of other denominations as well. 

OLD SCHOOL BAPTISTS. 

This is the proper name given to a separate organiza- 
tion of the Baptists. Other names are often applied to 
them, such as Anti-mission Baptists. The term "Hard- 
shell" Baptists, applied to them at first in derision, is so 
generally used that it has now become the name by 
which most people know them. They take the broad 
ground that God is not much dependent on human effort 
to spread His Church and add to its members. For this 
reason they oppose many efforts that other bodies of 
Christians deem most meritorious. They oppose all 
foreign mission work. They think that only the elect 
are to be saved, and that God will save such persons 
whether an effort is made in their behalf or not. Bear- 
ing this principle in mind, we can understand many of 
their customs and habits which we otherwise could not. 
As a separate organization, they date from 1832. 



EELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



391 



SIX PRINCIPLE BAPTISTS. 

This denomination is the name of a small branch of 
the Baptist Church. They are almost confined to the 
state of Rhode Island. The church organized by Roger 
Williams held the principles that have since distin- 
guished this church, but, dropping some and modifying 
others, they soon passed into the Regular Baptists. 
They take their name because their Creed rests on the 
six principles laid down in the first two verses of the 
sixth chapter of Hebrews. They are Arminian in the- 
ology, and the distinguishing point in their belief is the 
"laying on of hands." For some reason not well stated, 
they are opposed, or, at any rate, do not take part in the 
reformatory works of the day. In general, their minis- 
ters are not liberally educated or adequately supported. 

THE GERMAN BAPTISTS, OR BRETHREN. 

This organization took its rise in Germany, but in 
course of time, the mother church nearly all emigrated 
to America. As they practice immersion, they are often 
called German Baptists, but, from the peculiar way in 
which they practice immersion, they received the name 
of Tunkers or Bunkers, from a word meaning to dip. 
They arc also called Tumblers. The name they give 
themselves is Brethren. They perform baptism by put- 
ting the person, while kneeling, head-first under the water. 
It is difficult to say what their belief is, as they have no 
regular Creed. They seem to be Arminian in theology. 

Their church government is nearly the same as that 
of other Baptists, except that every brother is allowed to 
exhort. When they find a man apt to teach, they choose 
him to be their minister, and ordain him by the laying 



392 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



on of hands, attended by fasting and prayer, and giving 
the right hand of fellowship. They have also deacons 
and deaconesses. From among the teachers who have 
been tried, they choose bishops. An elder among them 
is in general the first or oldest chosen teacher in a con- 
gregation which has no bishop. They use great plain- 
ness of dress and language, like the society of Friends; 
and, like them, they neither take oaths nor fight. They 
will ii.>t go to law, and, until lately, the taking of inter- 
est on money was not allowed. They celebrate the 
Lord's Supper, with accompanying usages of love feasts, 
the washing of feet, the kiss of charity, and the right 
hand of fellowship. 

SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS. 

In England, this denomination has existed since the 
early part of the seventeenth century. In the United 
States, it originated in Newport in 1G71. The views of 
baptism, communion, and doctrine generally corrrespond 
with those of the Baptists. The point at which they 
separate from other Baptists has respect to the day 
Christians should regard as the Sabbath. This class 
observes the seventh day of the week, or Saturday, and 
teach that the usual observance of the first day, or Sun- 
day, is without any justification either from the Bible or 
early Church usage. 

SEVENTH-DAY GERMAN BAPTISTS. 

This sect is a branch of the German Baptists, which 
we have already described. The point of difference was 
principally in regard to what day to celebrate as the rest 
day. They think that there is no warrant in the Bible 
for the observance of Sunday. They regard the seventh 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



393 



day, or Saturday, as the one set aside by God for this 
purpose. They were established by Conrad Beissel, a 
native of Germany, who had been educated for the 
ministry at Halle. He was a member of the German 
Baptist Society, in Lancaster County, Pa. 

After carefully studying the question, he published a 
tract to show that the seventh day, and not the first day, 
was established by God as the Sabbath. This created 
some disturbance in the society, and he accordingly with- 
drew to a hermitage on the banks of the Cocalico. When 
his retreat was discovered, others joined him, and here, 
in 1733, the first Protestant monastery in America was 
formed. They adopted monastic names and dresses. 
They considered celibacy a virtue, but never required it, 
nor did they take any vows in reference to it. When 
any two wished to be joined in wedlock, they were aided 
by the society. This home society has long since gone 
down, but some branches of it are yet in existence. 

CHRISTIANS. 

This sect arose in this country about the beginning 
of the century. They originated simultaneously in the 
North, East, and South. The three bodies were at first 
distinct, and had no knowledge of each other. In 1793, 
in North Carolina, a secession of a number of Methodist 
churches took place from the general body, on the 
ground of church government. This body was at first 
known as Republican Methodists, but subsequently 
they adopted the name of Christians. The second body 
took its rise largely in Vermont, and was drawn largly 
from Baptist churches. They became dissatisfied on the 
question of Creeds, and organized themselves in a body 
with substantially the same principles as the Christians 



394 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



in 1804. The third body was drawn from the Presby- 
terian churches of Kentucky and Tennessee. A great 
revival swept over that section in 1800. A large num- 
ber of churches, desiring broader ground of union, organ- 
ized themselves as an independent body about 1804, and 
styled themselves Christians. The three independent 
organizations of which we have treated soon after form- 
ally united, and thus was formed the Christian deniomi- 
nation. 

They profess to disregard all Creeds and codes of 
ecclesiastical law, except the Bible itself. Each congre- 
gation is independent in government. They recognize the 
Scriptures as inspired, but allow every man to read and 
understand for himself. The doctrine of the Trinity is 
generally rejected, but Christ is regarded as a divine per- 
sonage, who existed before His life on earth, and is the 
mediator between God and man. The form of baptism 
is immersion, in this respect agreeing with the Baptists 
generally. They practice open communion. 

CHURCH OF GOD, OR WINEBRENNARIANS. 

This denomination, the proper name of which is 
Church of God, is oftener called after the name of its 
founder. Rev. John Winebrenner. He was originally a 
minister of the German Reformed Church near Harris- 
burg, Pa. Owing to a difference of views in regard to 
revivals, he withdrew from that body, and, in 1830, 
established this new denomination. They agree with the 
Baptists generally in regard to baptism. They observe 
the Lord's Supper only in the evening. Taking Christ's 
Avords in the thirteenth chapter of John in their literal 
sense, they adopt the rite of feet-washing as a binding 
obligation. In church government they are liberal. 



KELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



395 



DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, OR CAMPBELLITES. 

The founder of this organization was Alexander Camp- 
bell. The original aim of the founder was to unite all 
Christian sects on a common basis of work. It was 
thought that these objects could be attained by taking 
the Bible alone as a guide, and its express teachings as 
the only authoritative standard of faith and practice, 
allowing meanwhile entire liberty of opinion in relation 
to all matters not fully revealed. A considerable society 
was formed, consisting, principally, of members of Pres- 
byterian churches, in the western part of Pennsylvania, 
where Mr. Campbell had labored. This was in 1810. 
Subsequently they were led to consider the subject of 
baptism, and the larger number of them, following the 
lead of Mr. Campbell, came to the conclusion that im- 
mersion was the only proper mode, and consequently 
were immersed and were received into the Baptist de- 
nomination. 

This union did not continue long, for they were 
still opposed to Creeds, and the careful study of the 
Bible led to the adoption of views in regard to baptism 
at variance with the Baptists generally. They baptize 
"for the remission of sins;" they regard this rite as the 
means through which pardon for sins is to be received. 
In imitation of the early Church, they practice com- 
munion each Sunday. These views finally led to a sepa- 
ration from the regular Baptist denomination in 1828. 
From this time on, they have remained an independent 
organization. They are Congregational in church gov- 
ernment. In some places this denomination is con- 
founded with the Christian denomination, but they do 
not agree with this latter body in regard to baptism. 



390 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



CONGREGATION ALISTS. 

Iii the description of the denominations thus far given, 
we have frequently said they were "Congregational in 
government." When used in this way, the word con- 
gregational denotes simply a form of government. In the 
Congregational system, cadi church or organized body 
of believers is independent, has the power to elect and 
inaugurate its own officers, and to perform all needful 
ecclesiastical ads. We will notice considerable differ- 
ence in form between this government and that of Pres- 
byterianism and Episcopacy. When used in this sense, the 
word congregational docs not refer to any denomination. 
It is the government of the various Baptist denomina- 
tions, of the Adventists, of the Univcrsalists, Unitarians, 
and of the denomination that goes by the name of Con- 
gregational ists. 

As a denomination, Congregational churches were 
introduced into New England by the colony that came 
in the Mayflower. While in England they were one 
of the various dissenting denominations that did not 
agree with the Church of England, and had been ex- 
posed to persecution on this account. They were Cal- 
vin istic in doctrine; but as they have always been 
progressive in theology, their views have, in course of 
time, been much modified by the teachings of eminent 
men in the church — such men as Edwards, Hopkins, 
Taylor, and Finney have greatly modified their early 
views. They favor a large liberty of views, and accept 
no Creed as a basis to stand on except as a convenient 
statement for substance of doctrine. They allow subjects 
of baptism to select the mode. They allow infant bap- 
tism, but do not insist on it. As a denomination, the 



P.ELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 397 

Congregationalists stand in the front rank with those in 
favor of education and reformatory work of all kinds. 

THE CATHOLIC CHUECH. 

The full name of this organization, as all know, is 
the Roman Catholic Church. It is Roman, because the 
"See" of Rome is the head of the government; it is 
Catholic, because of its universal extension ; it is the 
largest Christian religious organization in the world. It 
agrees with the evangelical bodies in many important 
points, such as the doctrine of the Trinity, the divinity 
of Christ and the atoning merits of His death, the neces- 
sity of repentance from sin, and a future state of rewards 
and punishments. The points of difference are also many 
and various. This church claims to be the only true 
church of Christ, and to derive its doctrines, authority, 
and its succession of ministry, directly from Christ Him- 
self. The form of baptism is not regarded as essential, 
but immersion was the ancient method. They are said to 
favor pouring three times applied, but, at present, sprink- 
ling is the method most employed. They hold baptism 
itself to be a very essential act. It is the means ap- 
pointed by God for the washing away of sin, and ren- 
dering the nature holy. The necessity of baptizing 
infants is taught. No matter what the faith of the 
parents may be, unless the infants are baptized they 
regard them as doomed to everlasting punishment. This 
is considered so important that, in case of necessity, any 
one is authorized to baptize the infant, the only pro- 
vision being that they should intend by this act to do 
what the Catholic Church does in that act. 

The priesthood, in all their successive gradations, from 
the lowest to the highest, are bound to perpetual cel- 

24 



308 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ibacy. Among the laity marriage is regarded as a sac- 
rament, and, consequently, must be solemnized by a 
priest, otherwise it is void in the sight of God. A mor- 
tal sin is any act, speech, desire, or thought grievously 
opposed to the natural or divine law; such, for instance, 
as deliberate hatred, grave calumny, acts of violence, 
lust, and murder. Sins which imply no grievous opposi- 
tion to the law of God are called venial, because their 
pardon is easily obtained, since they do not separate the 
soul from God. Slight impatience, rash words, vain self- 
complacency, rmiy be called venial sins. Those who die 
in mortal sins are lost forever; those who die in venial 
sins go to purgatory, where they must stay their ap- 
pointed time of suffering, unless the period is lessened 
by masses and prayers said by the priest in their behalf 
among the living. 

The organization of the church is very complete. 
The priest in charge of a church holds a very responsi- 
ble position. To his church he is the authorized ex- 
pounder of doctrine and duty; to him they confess their 
sins, and from him they receive pardon. A bishop has 
charge of a certain territory, and all the interests of 
the church therein. This territory is called a diocese. 
Several of these territories united form a province, over 
which is placed an archbishop. The archbishop does 
not, however, exert similar or as full authority over the 
bishops as the latter do over the priests. He does not 
interfere except when appealed to, or when a council 
deems it necessary. Many provinces are sometimes 
united as a nation, over which is placed a primate. The 
head of the church, finally, is the pope. He, alone, has 
apostolic authority, which may be everywhere exer- 
cised. He is regarded as the successor of St. Peter, 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



399 



and is considered infallible when he utters religious 
doctrines. 

This is the oldest denomination in the United States. 
Its priest accompanied the first explorers. It was planted 
in the interior of this country nearly one hundred years 
before the landing of the Puritans. Before there were 
any settlements along the Atlantic Coast, its mission 
churches were planted in what is now Texas, New Mex- 
ico, Arizona, and California. During the perilous days 
of the early colonial period, her missionaries were ex- 
ploring the great lakes, and voyaging up and down the 
tributaries of the Upper Mississippi. Maryland was at 
first a Catholic colony, and her founder took the broad 
and liberal view that no one should be persecuted for 
religious sentiments. 

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

In order to understand the position of this denom- 
ination we must briefly refer to the Church of England. 
A full explanation of this subject would involve more of 
history than we have room to give. It is enough to say 
that Christianity was very early introduced into Britain. 
British bishops were present in the Catholic councils of 
the third century. Except in Wales, Christianity was 
nearly exterminated by the Saxon conquest. In the 
course of a few generations, however, it was reintroduced. 
During the Dark Ages the Catholic religion was the ac- 
knowledged religion of England; but still there was an 
ever-recurring spirit of resistance on the part of the En- 
glish people. In 1534 this spirit of resistance was greatly 
increased by a quarrel between Henry VIII and the 
concerning royal divorces, and the king and par- 
liament, by law, abolished papal authority in the king- 



4( K ) 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



dom. The result was the formation of the Church of 
England. 

But there was no violent change of Creeds. They 
returned to what they understood to be the practices of 
the primitive Church. The government of the church 
is in form very similar to the Catholic Church. The 
ruling sovereign of England is the supreme head of the 
church. Two archbishops, those of Canterbury and 
York, and twenty-six bishops, constitute the higher order 
of clergy. Previous to the American Revolution, mem- 
bers of the Church of England were constantly settling 
in all parts of the colonies. They would feel the neces- 
sity of continuing the worship the same as in England. A 
church of this denomination was organized in Jamestown 
in 1007. The interests of the churches in America were 
under the care of the bishop of London. When the 
Revolution ended it became necessary to make some 
changes, as the churches here would not care to be under 
the control of the bishops of England. The result was 
the organization of the Episcopal Church. We would 
naturally expect this denomination to adopt the Creed 
and plan of government of the parent body. 

The name is derived from the form of government. 
We have fully described the congregational form of gov- 
ernment, where each church is independent. The govern- 
ment of churches by means of bishops, as distinct from 
and superior to the clergy, is called Episcopal govern- 
ment. The church is a very rich one. It is conserva- 
tive, and dislikes to change the established customs of 
worship, or change its articles of faith and belief. Prob- 
ably the beliefs of the church are in advance of its arti- 
cles, and were they to-day to state them in new language, 
they would make some changes. 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



401 



REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

In the Protestant Episcopal Church, both in England 
and America, parties have arisen which produce some 
conflict in the church. The one party think the High 
Church party value altogether too highly the external 
forms of worship, and place too high a value on ordina- 
tions and sacraments. The party making these accusa- 
tions are in turn charged with being fond of change, and 
with having a disposition to break down all church dis- 
cipline. The movement had extended so far that in this 
country, in 1873, several ministers seceded from the 
Episcopal Church and formed a new organization, with 
this name. 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Methodism is a form of Church life and polity that 
originated in England during the eighteenth century. 
It has had a marvelous growth. The founder of 
Methodism was Rev. John Wesley, a member of the 
Church of England. It was not his intention to estab- 
lish a separate religious denomination. He became 
deeply impressed with the necessity of a deeper religious 
life. While yet a student in Oxford, himself, his brother 
Charles, and a few others, formed a society for mutual 
moral improvement. This little band, by the faithful 
performance of what they considered their duty, were 
styled, in derision, Methodists, from their methodical 
habit of life. This name soon lost its derisive character, 
and is now the title of a numerous body of Christians. 

The object of the brothers Wesley and Whitetield was 
simply to bring back the Church to a pure and holy life, 
and to save the degraded and neglected. They were so 



402 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



earnest in this work, that the Church of England turned 
col illy from their work and refused to let them preach 
from their pulpits. Their conduct in this matter is a 
striking proof of the lifeless formalism of the Church. 
Driven from the churches, they preached in private 
houses, barns, market places, or open fields, as oppor 
tunity was given. They were eagerly heard by the 
people, and great multitudes were converted. It was 
the wish of Wesley and his fellow workers that his con- 
verts should be received into the Church of England, 
and eared for by their ministers. But they were either 
despised or utterly neglected by the Church, and hence 
Wesley at their request, formed them into societies for 
mutual edification and improvement. 

For the government of these societies, a few simple 
rales were proposed by the Wesleys, which, with some 
slight changes, are still recognized as the general rules by 
all branches of the Methodist Church. This was the 
I' iginning of Methodism in England, and it is not neces- 
sary to pursue the subject in that country at greater 
length. In the activity of the times, a great many of 
Mr. Wesley's converts came to America. The first Meth- 
odist sermon in this country was preached in New York 
in 17G(5. From that, as a starting point, the movement 
spread rapidly. In the meanwhile the war of the Revo- 
lution had been fought, and the independence of the 
United States had been won, and it became necessary to 
provide more effectively for the wants of the numerous 
societies. The result w r as the formation of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. The government, as the name 
implies, is Episcopal, but it is not based on the idea that 
this is the essential form of government. In doctrine, 
they are Arminian. The law-making body is the Gen- 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



403 



eral Conference, composed of delegates from the annual 
conferences, and meets every fourth year. This body 
elects bishops, who, with the aid of presiding elders, have 
general oversight of the affairs of the church. This 
church has extensive home and foreign missions, colleges, 
theological seminaries, academies, two extensive publish- 
ing houses, and is actively engaged in every department 
of Church work. 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTH. 

This division was caused by the difference in views 
in regard to slavery. The Southern conferences — that 
is, those of the slave-holding states, dissented from the 
position of the General Conference in regard to slavery, 
and, in 1845, dissolved the relations between them, and 
provided for the continuation of the church under the 
name they now have. Slavery has passed away, but 
they still retain their separate organization. . This branch 
retains the doctrines, principles of government, and plans 
of labor of the other, and is conducting all its operations 
with energy and success. 

AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES. 

There are three Methodist organizations composed of 
colored churches, and, though not differing in doctrine, 
they deem the best interests of their race advanced in 
this way. Very early in the history of the church, the 
colored members manifested a desire to organize by 
themselves. This was not to be wondered at, considering 
the state of the times. In 1793, a colored church in 
Philadelphia withdrew from the Methodists and became 
independent. But still difficulties continued to exist be- 
tween this church and the parent organization, which 



404 



THE DIDLE COMPANION'. 



were not terminated until 1810, when several churches 
united under the above name. The doctrine and govern- 
ment of this church agree with those of the parent 
body. In 1810. a secession from this church was organ- 
ized, under the title of the "African Methodist Episco- 
pal /ion Church." Instead of a bishop, they elect a 
superintendent each year. The "Colored Methodist 
Episcopal Church in America" was organized in 1870, 
from members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, 
and are in sympathy with it. 

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 

This religious body, which has now dropped the 
word prot 'est ant, was formed, in 1830, largely by seceders 
from the Methodist Episcopal Church. The point of dis- 
agreement was in regard to government. The first 
change the reformers wished, was to have a portion of 
the delegates to the General Conference composed of lay 
members of the church. Previous to 1872, all the dele- 
gates of the Methodist Episcopal Church to the General 
Conference were ministers. This not being allowed, the 
new organization was effected. The doctrines of the 
church are the same as the parent church. But the 
new organization does not recognize the office of bishop 
or presiding elder. This church has grown with con- 
siderable rapidity. 

WESLEYAX METHODIST CHURCH. 

This is an American organization, formed in 1843, 
chiefly by members withdrawing from the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. They wished to have a stronger 
stand taken against some of the evils of the day than 
the church did take. In doctrine and religious usages, 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATION'S. 



405 



this body is strictly Methodist. They were bitterly op- 
posed to slavery, and would not receive as members 
those who even admitted that slavery was right. This 
denomination did much to educate the public to the point 
of positive opposition to slavery. A strong position was 
also taken against intemperance and secret society organ- 
izations. In government, this church is congregational 
in local matters, but the general interests are under the 
supervision of the general and yearly conferences. These 
conferences elect their own presidents. We have now 
given most of the Methodist organizations. In addition 
to those already described, are the Primitive Methodists, 
the Free Methodists, the Calvinistic Methodists, and 
some smaller societies. 

UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. 

The word Methodist does not appear in the name of 
this body, and yet they are Methodists in doctrine and 
plan of work. The founder of this church was -Rev. 
William Otterbein, a minister of the German Reformed 
Church, sent to America to labor in the interests of that 
church. He felt the necessity of a higher spiritual life 
on his own part, and after experiencing the same, he 
commenced to preach it with great earnestness. In this 
work, he was oj)posed by his own church, and soon 
withdrew from that organization, and devoted himself 
wholly to evangelical work. He was assisted in this 
work by another evangelist named Boehm, a Mennonite 
minister. 

They were acquainted with the early Methodist 
ministers in this country, assisted them in their work, 
and adopted the excellent organization of Wesley for 
work. At this time, we must remember, the Methodists 



40G 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



did not consider themselves a separate denomination. 
II.-ul they been fully organized, in .-ill probability this 
movement would have become merged in that. As it 
was, Otterbein and his fellow workers continued extend- 
ing their work and perfecting their organization. They 
are now an extensive organization. They agree with the 
Methodists in doctrine. Their government is similar, 
but the bishops are only elected for four years at a time. 
At the very start, they took strong grounds against 
slavery, scen t societies, and intemperance. At the Gen- 
eral Conference, in 1885, the rule in regard to secret 
societies was virtually abrogated, not, however, without 
strong opposition on the part of some of the delegates. 

EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. 

This is in all respects a Methodist denomination. Its 
founder was Rev. Jacob Albright. He was a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a German, 
living in a German neighborhood, and became impressed 
with the general decline of religious life among his peo- 
ple. Impelled by a sense of duty, about the year 1790, 
he commenced preaching to his countrymen. At this 
work he was very successful. Helpers came to his as- 
sistance, and he found himself at the head of a very 
promising movement. It was deemed best, about 1800, 
to effect a separate organization for work, and so this 
new denomination was formed. Their doctrine is so simi- 
lar to the Methodist Episcopal Church, that they are 
often called the German Methodists. The government 
is also quite similar, but the bishops and elders are 
elected for a period of four years only. This denomina- 
tion is most numerous in Pennsylvania, Avhere there is a 
large German population, and in the North-western States. 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



407 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

There are several Christian denominations that are 
Presbyterian. This has reference to the form of govern- 
ment. We have described several different forms of 
church government — the Congregational, the Episcopal, 
and the government of the Church of Rome. Presby- 
terianism is still different. Each local church is gov- 
erned by its session. The congregation elects from among 
its members representatives, known as ruling elders ; 
these, with the minister, form the session. Originally, 
the ruling elders were chosen for life ; since 1874, the 
churches are at liberty to choose them for a term of 
years. An appeal may be taken from the session to the 
presbytery — this is composed of delegates from each of 
the congregations within its district. The delegates are 
the pastor and an elder from each church. The synod, 
to which appeal may be made from presbytery, is com- 
posed of several adjoining presbyteries. The General 
Assembly, composed of representatives from all the pres- 
byteries, may entertain appeals from synods in certain 
cases, but it can make no constitutional changes until 
the matter in question has been submitted to the presby- 
teries and has met their approval. 

The first Presbyterian churches in America were or- 
ganized near the close of the seventeenth century, and 
were composed largly of immigrants from Scotland and 
Ireland. The first synod was organized in 1716, in Phila- 
delphia. About 1740, a division of this synod took place, 
resulting largely from difference of views in regard to re- 
vivals under Whitefield. One party w T as known as the 
old side, the other as the new. This division was re- 
moved by mutual concessions seventeen years later. A 



408 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



more serious division occurred in 1837. The church had 
prospered, luit doctrinal differences had sprung up. The 
Presbyterian Church has always been Calvinistic in be- 
lief. At the time in question, the Old School Presbyte- 
rians were the conservative class, and wished to hold 
strictly to Calvinistic belief. The New School, on the 
other hand, were more or less Congregational in theory, 
and did not hold so strictly to the doctrines of Calvinism. 

Thus there were formed two General Assemblies of the 
Presbyterian Church. But, as time passed on, and dis- 
cussion on this point was allowed to subside, the two 
bodies found themselves substantially in harmony with 
one another, and so, after thirty-three years of separa- 
tion, they were once more formally united. When the 
civil war of 18(51-.") was in progress, the Presbyterian 
synods of the Confederate States could not meet with 
tin- General Assemblies North; consequently they sev- 
ered their connection, and organized themselves into a 
denomination known as the Presbyterian Church South. 
This division still exists, though there is but little to 
keep them separate. The Presbyterian Church is active 
in all the reformatory questions of the day, and takes a 
great interest in all educational questions. 

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

In order to fully understand the cause giving rise to 
this denomination of Presbyterians, it would require 
considerable review of Scottish historv. Scotland was 
the home of Presbyterianism, and it was introduced into 
this country mainly by emigrants from that country and 
the North of Ireland. It may be enough to state that, 
at an early day, there were three divisions of the Presby- 
terian Church in Scotland. The Associate Presbyterian. 




Hagar praying in the Wilderness. 



EELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



411 



were composed of a number of presbyteries who were 
cut off from the regular church by reason of the stand 
they took in regard to the high-handed measures of the 
church. There was not much difference in doctrinal 
points, except they have always been conservative in 
belief. This denomination prospered, and churches, 
under the care of its synod, were organized in America, 
and known as the Associate Presbyterians. The Re- 
formed Presbyterians were another of the Scottish denom- 
inations. They are often called Covenanters. They 
claimed that the Presbyterian Church of Scotland proper 
had departed from the solemn league and covenant of 1643 
between England, Scotland, and Ireland. So they formed 
a separate organization. They also had organized churches 
in this country of this name. In 1782 a union was 
effected between the churches of the two denominations 
in this country, and the new denomination took the name 
of the Associate Reformed Church. The majority of the 
churches sanctioned this union, but not all. The dissat- 
isfied churches maintained the old organizations. Thus 
there were three denominations. In 1858 another effort 
for union was made, and was successful in uniting the 
Associate and Associate Reform denominations under 
the name of United Presbyterian Church. A small 
number of churches only refused to sanction this union. 

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 

This denomination took its rise as a consequence of 
the great religious revival in Kentucky and Tennessee 
about the first of the present century. A great religious 
awakening swept over the country. Two brothers were 
largely instrumental in this work — one was a Methodist, 
the other was a Presbyterian ; but they worked together. 



412 



THE I5IRLE COMPANION. 



Churches were multiplied to such an extent that there 
was not enough liberally educated ministers to supply 
the need. As the occasion seemed urgent, several men 
were installed as pastors who had not gone through the 
regular training required by the Presbyterian Church. 
The Cumberland Presbytery, which was organized in the 
southern part of Kentucky in 1803, ordained some and 
licensed others as they thought the occasion required. 

The action of this presbytery was condemned by the 
synod of Kentucky, and, subsequently by the General 
Assembly of tin' Presbyterian Church. The Cumberland 
Presbytery refused to recede from its position, and, in 
INK), withdrew from the Presbyterian Church, and 
organized as the Cumberland Presbyterians. Their 
growth has been rapid. Jn doctrine they occupy a mid- 
dle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism. Their 
government is Presbyterian in form. They have local 
pastm's. but they have also adopted the itinerant sys- 
tem of the Methodists. We can trace in their doc- 
trines and government the combined influence of the 
two brothers McGee — the one, Methodist; the other, 
Presbyterian — who united for such faithful work in the 
great revival which gave rise to this denomination. 

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. 

The Protestant world will never forget the splendid 
and successful labors of Martin Luther in the cause of 
religious freedom. The name of Lutherans was given 
to his followers, at first in derision, but it quickly lost that 
significance. The church founded by him has passed 
under various names — their earliest preference was for 
the name "Evangelical" — and some insist this is the 
only proper name. Later, the name of Protestants was 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



413 



given them, which, in most countries, now designate all 
churches opposed to the Catholics. In European usage 
this name, to a large extent, is still confined to the 
Lutherans. In Poland and Austria the official title is, 
" Church of the Augsburg Confession." The name by 
which this denomination is best known now is the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church. 

At a very early date Lutherans emigrated from Hol- 
land, and settled in what is now New York. The first 
church organized in 1742. In doctrine this church holds 
somewhat different views from many of the Protestant 
denominations we have been considering. We have seen 
that a large number of them embrace the views of 
Calvin, and others of Arminius. The Lutherans agree 
with neither of these beliefs. They dissent from Calvinism 
in regard to the doctrines of election and predestination, 
and. they attach a greater importance to the sacraments 
of baptism and the Lord's Supper than do the Calvin- 
ists. The views of Arminius himself did not apparently 
differ essentially from those of the Lutherans; but on 
many points in the developed system, now known as 
Arminianism, the Lutherans dissent. The church is 
very conservative. Probably the strong affection they 
have for Luther has led them to hold on to some of the 
doctrines taught by him, though, were they to formulate 
a new Creed now, they would change some of his 
statements. 

The government of the church comes nearest to the 
Presbyterian form than any other. The government and 
discipline of each individual church is by means of the 
vestry. The synods are composed of several churches, 
and in structures and powers much resemble the pres- 
byteries. They have fewer formalities in their proceed- 



414 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



inns, and their decisions are frequently given as advice 
The General Synod of the Lutheran Church is wholly 
an advisory body. 

REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA. 

This was called "The Reformed Protestant Dutch 
Church." It was introduced into this country by Dutch 
emigrants from Holland. They differ from their Lu- 
theran brethren in 1 hat they are Calvinistic in theology. 
The denomination is largely confined to the Middle 
Slates, and in government and doctrine is essentially 
Presbyterian. 

REFORMED CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 

This was formerly known as the German Reformed 
Church. It is an offshoot of the Reformed Church of 
Germany. Being one of the family of reformed churches, 
it is Calvinistic as opposed to Lutheranism. It is not, 
however, so strictly Calvinistic as the preceding denom- 
ination. There is enough difference on this point to 
prevent a union between these two denominations. It is 
also more given to forms in worship, or the use of a 
liturgy. The government is Presbyterian. 

THE MENNONITES. 

This is the name of a denomination of Protestants 
who reject infant baptism, and baptize adult persons only 
on a profession of faith, and practice non-resistance and 
abstinence from oaths. We thus see that they combine 
some of the principles of the Baptists and some of the 
Quakers. The form of baptism is, however, by pouring. 
From their views in regard to baptism, they were at first 
called Anabaptists. They are called Mennonites, because 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



415 



Merino Simon was the person who reorganized them, 
and gave the movement life and vitality. This man was 
at first a priest, but, after a personal examination of the 
Bible, he changed his views. Renouncing Catholicism, 
he accepted the views of the Anabaptists, and became a 
traveling preacher among them. 

This denomination was subject to very severe perse- 
cutions, and its members became widely scattered. 
Some of the first Dutch settlers in New York were 
Mennonites. William Penn held out inducements for 
them to settle in his province, and the first church was 
organized in 1683. They have increased in the course 
of time, and are now widely scattered in the United 
States. There are several divisions: 1. The Old Men- 
nonites ; this is the largest body. 2. The Reformed 
Mennonites, who return to the strictness of ancient 
times, and prohibit all religious intercourse with other 
Christians. 3. The New Mennonites, organized in 1847. 
4. The Evangelical Mennonites, who separated from the 
preceding on questions relating to prayer. 5. The Ornish; 
next to the Old Mennonites, these are the most numer- 
ous body of the Mennonites in America. They are 
strict in their worship and simple in their manners ; they 
go so far as to discard the use of buttons, using, instead, 
hooks and eyes. 

In their general doctrines the Mennonites agree with 
the great body of Evangelical Christians. The mode of 
baptism, except among some of the New Mennonites 
and the Evangelical, is always pouring. The Lord's 
Supper is celebrated twice a year, preceded in a majority 
of churches by feet- washing. All Mennonites consider 
honesty, industry, and plainness of dress and manner's 
to be prominent Christian duties. They never go to 

25 



410 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



law, and do not assume public offices which would make 
it necessary for them to take an oath or inflict punish- 
ment. In church government they somewhat resemble 
the Presbyterians, since the resolutions of the conference 
are binding on the churches. They have bishops, priests, 
and deacons, but the only difference between the bishop 
and the preacher is, that the former is ordained, the 
latter only licensed to preach. 

THE MORAVIANS. 

In the Moravians we have a protestant denomination 
some centuries older than the Reformation. Christianity 
was introduced into Bohemia and Moravia in the ninth 
century, and a national church organized. For centuries 
tli y manifested a spirit of opposition to Rome. For 
this, one of their reformers, John IIuss, was burned at 
the stake in the fifteenth century. The history of the 
Moravians proper, however, commences with 1457. They 
increased rapidly for a time, and, near the close of the 
century, they counted four hundred churches in Moravia 
and Bohemia. In the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, they were subjected to very severe persecutions. 
Protestantism was overthrown in the countries named, 
and more than fifty thousand inhabitants were driven 
into exile. As a consequence, the Moravian Church dis- 
appeared. But in secret, many families still clung to 
their ancient form of religion. In the first quarter of 
the eighteenth century, such believers were gradually as- 
sembled in Saxony on the estates of Count Zinzcndorf, 
and thus the church was re-established. 

They call themselves United Brethren, but must not 
be confounded with the United Brethren in Christ, of 
which church we have treated. They are an evangelical 



EELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



417 



church, in the fullest sense of the term. They have no 
confession of faith, as such. Their society may be called 
a union of Christians. Individuals from all Protestant 
denominations coinciding in the fundamental doctrines of 
Christianity common to all, and professing a desire to 
lead a truly Christian life, as members of their commu- 
nity, and under its regulation; were, from the beginning, 
admitted among them, without renouncing their original 
church and Creed. The distinguishing feature of their 
belief is the special prominence given to the person and 
atonement of Christ. He is regarded as the center of 
Christian doctrine. Some of the very earliest settlers in 
this country were Moravians. General Oglethorpe set- 
tled a colony of them in Georgia in 1733. The church, 
though small in numbers, has always been noted for its 
mission work. At an early day their missionaries made 
great exertions to spread a knowledge of Christianity 
amongst the Indian tribes of this country. 

The government is somewhat peculiar. All the 
Moravian churches in the United States belong to one of 
two districts, the Northern or the Southern. Each dis- 
trict has a synod, composed of representatives from the 
churches. This synod elects a governing board, composed 
of bishops and elders, to which the entire management 
of the church in the interval between synods, including 
the appointment of pastors, is intrusted. The Moravian 
ministry embraces bishops, presbyters, and deacons. 
Bishops are appointed by lot. But the bishops do not 
exercise governing functions, unless they are members of 
the governing board. In other respects, their duties re- 
late to the spiritual concerns of the church. A number 
of features peculiar to the early Moravians have disap- 
peared in the United States. 



418 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Till-: NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH, OH S WE I ) E N BO RG I A N I SM . 

Emanuel Swedenborg was born in Stockholm, Sweden, 
1688, and died in London, England, 1772. He was the 
son of a Lutheran bishop. He was thoroughly educated, 
and distinguished himself in Lis early and middle life 
by his learning, especially in mathematics and natural 
Science. He published several philosophical works, and 
held several posts of honor and trust under the govern- 
ment. At the age of fifty-seven, he resigned his offices, 
and henceforth devoted himself to religious philosophical 
works. He conceived that he was divinely set aside for 
this work, and claimed to hold intercourse with the spirit 
world, but he never referred to- this intercourse, except 
when questioned about it. Several instances are reported 
of his obtaining information from departed souls respect- 
ing affairs unknown even to their families. On his death- 
bed, he solemnly reiterated the truth of his writings. 

It is difficult to give an account of his views. Ho 
would regard the trinity of the Godhead as a trinity of 
principles, not of persons. The chief religious duties are 
faith in the Lord and the avoidance of evil. He lays 
but little strength on anything else, such as outward wor- 
ship, prayer and meditation, and works of charity. He 
classifies the books of the Bible differently from the 
Protestants. He would reject, as forming no part of the 
Bible, Ruth, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehcmiah, and Esther, 
and all the poetical books, except the Psalms. From the 
New Testament, he rejects Acts of the Apostles and all 
the apostolic letters. He thinks he detects in the re- 
maining books an internal or spiritual meaning lacking 
in those we have enumerated. 

In regard to the future world, he tells us that heaven 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



419 



and hell exist not in some other region of space, but 
within the natural world, as the soul of man exists 
within his body. At death, the body, which is the ma- 
terial envelope of the soul, is cast aside, never to be 
resumed, and, consequently, its resurrection is not to be 
looked for. The soul is the man himself, and is a per- 
fect human being, with a spiritual body of its own, and 
rises into a conscious perception of the spiritual world, 
of which the man had previously been unconsciously an 
inhabitant. After a longer or shorter preparation in an 
intermediate state, called the world of spirits, which lies 
between heaven and hell, the soul gravitates to the place 
where it belongs, and remains there to eternity. Swe- 
denborg's views have a charm for and power over a pe- 
culiar class of minds, in most respects very excellent, 
not numerous, but found nearly everywhere. His follow- 
ers organized as the New Jerusalem Church, and by that 
name they are often known. 

UNITARIANS. 

Unitarianism is the doctrine that denies the deity of 
Christ, and His equality with God, the Father. Uni- 
tarians, then, deny the doctrine of the Trinity. They 
maintain that God is one mind, one person, one undi- 
vided being ; that the Father alone is entitled to be called 
God in the highest sense. But there is great diversity 
of opinion among them in regard to Christ — some re- 
gard Him as a mere man ; others as a being far above 
humanity ; and still others speak of Him in such terms 
that it is hard to decide in what respect they differ in 
views from evangelical ' Christians. By the Holy Spirit, 
they suppose is meant not a person, but an influence. 
On other points, such as the fall of man, doctrine of 



420 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



future punishments, and Christian doctrines generally, 
they differ among themselves. Professing little reverence 
For human Creeds, having no common standard but the 
Bible, and allowing, in the fullest extent, freedom of 
thought and the liberty of every Christian to interpret 
the records of Divine Revelation for himself, they look 
for diversity of opinion as the necessary result. The 
Unitarians of this country are largely a secession from 
the Congregational churches of Massachusetts. In Eng- 
land, they come largly from the Presbyterians. 

Tin: [JUIVEESALISTS. 

The Universal is«ts are, in the main, Unitarians in be- 
lief, the distinguishing feature being the belief that all 
men will, at some future time, be saved from the power 
of sin, and become the happy servants of God. While 
some diversity is found among them in regard to some 
parts of their system, all agree as to the final results. 
In general, Universalists do not teach that wicked men 
pass at once to the joys of heaven in the event of death; 
on the contrary, they hold that the consequences of sin 
follow slich souls, and that they can not enter heaven 
until they are prepared for it by a period of suffering, 
the duration of which depends upon the circumstances 
of each soul. 

SPIRITUALISM. 

Spiritualism is the belief of those who hold to the 
possibility of communicating with the spirits of the dead. 
There is a large class of phenomena, physical and 
mental, which they regard as the result of the action of 
spirits ; using for this purpose persons of a peculiarly 
sensitive organization they call mediums. Doubtless, all 
are familiar with these phenomena, and have an idea of 



EELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



421 



what they consist. Spiritualists assert that there are 
abundant data on which to rest their belief, without ref- 
erence to the more striking phenomena of the present 
day. They refer to the oracles of ancient history, to the 
lives of seers and clairvoyants, to recorded events in the 
lives of many eminent personages, such as Swedenborg's 
alleged full and open communication with the spirit 
world. They freely admit that a great many impostors 
have taken advantage of the interest researches into this 
question have raised to palm themselves off as mediums, 
but they point to the fact that many persons in Europe 
and America, distinguished in the walks of science, phi- 
losophy, literature, and statesmanship, have either become 
avowed converts or are, at any rate, free to admit that 
the manifestations are not the results of imposture. 

There is but very little organization among the 
Spiritualists, and these include but a small portion of 
those who fully or in part accept their views. In 
matters of belief, there seems to be among them the 
widest latitude of opinion. Coming, as the believers do, 
from all sects and parties, both within and without the 
Church, they stand on no Creed, and insist on no sharply 
defined opinions. With rare exceptions, they believe in 
the existence of one God, but deny the doctrine of the 
Trinity. They believe in the immortal nature of man. 
They regard progress as the great law of the future 
world as well as this. The visible and invisible world 
are believed to be as intimately related as the spirits 
and bodies of men. 

QUAKERS. 

This is the common name of a religious body that 
originated in England in the seventeenth century. The 



422 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



name they adopted at first was "The Religious Society 
of Friends,"' and they are always known among them- 
selves as Friends. The origin of the term Quakers is 
unknown — probably given to them in derision at first. 
When this sect arose, England was in a distracted state. 
The civil war between the crown and the parliament was 
drawing to a close. It was a time of excitement, Opin- 
ions were changing. New theories of government and 
new Creeds in religion were constantly springing up, and 
all wore supported with fanatical zeal. There was liv- 
ing at this time George Fox, by trade a shoemaker; but 
he led a solitary life, and passed most of his time in 
meditation and reading the Scriptures. He reflected on 
the state of religion. The church was united with the 
state. Its ministers were worldly and even mercenary, 
and neglectful of their holy callings. He interpreted the 
Bible in a very literal sense. And conceiving he had a 
divine call to preach, he commenced to protest against 
the corruption of the age. 

Followers gathered about him, and by degrees this 
movement grew in strength and organization. They 
condemned the clergy that were made such by the law 
of the land, and held that any Christian man or woman 
had a right to speak in the church if they thought they 
had a message to declare. They condemned all forms 
and ceremonies in religious exercises, believing that God 
was to be worshiped in spirit. They believed in and in- 
culcated the utmost plainness and simplicity — nothing for 
show, nothing for ornament, everything for plainness. 
They practiced this principle in their dress, in their 
speech, and manner of life. The dress of the Quakers 
was not originally adopted as a distinctive one. They 
have simply adhered to old customs, and not changed as 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



423 



fashions changed. If they rebuked the insincerity of 
fashionable life among the rich, they also rebuked the 
servility of the poor. They refuse to recognize worldly 
distinctions of class, and address all people by their first 
names. 

The founders of this society did not seek to establish 
a new Creed. They sought to effect a reform in man- 
ners rather than in belief. They desired to persuade 
men to live in the way in which they conceived that the 
early Christians lived. They professed their belief in 
all the fundamental doctrines of Christianity as they 
were generally understood among Protestant Christians. 
Hence their members were not and are not asked to sub- 
scribe to any articles of faith. At first, members of this 
society were subject to very great persecution both in 
England and in the colonies, and probably their warmest 
defenders would not deny that some members of this 
sect acted with very little discretion. Doubtless all are 
aware of the fact that Pennsylvania was a Quaker 
colony, William Penn, its founder, being one of its fore- 
most members. 

In 1827 a division occurred among the Quakers of 
this country. Elias Hicks, one of their eminent preach- 
ers, began to inculcate views in regard to Christ that 
were opposed to the teaching of the majority. The re- 
sult was a division. His followers are called the Hick- 
sites. They may be called Unitarian Quakers. The 
Quakers are the most numerous in the Middle States, 
Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa. They oppose the taking of 
civil oaths, and will have nothing to do with war. They 
have always been noted for their love of religious lib- 
erty, and their opposition to what they considered great 
and crying evils. 



424 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



SHAKERS. 

This is the popular name of a religious sect who, 
however, call themselves " United Society of Believers in 
Christ's Second Appearance." They originated in Eng- 
land, but are now confined to the United States. They 
were at first offshoots from the Quakers, and hold sim- 
ilar views in regard to spiritual illumination, going to 
war, civil oaths, etc.; but, in their doctrinal views, and 
the practice of celibacy, they are entirely at variance 
with them. In 1747 a few members of the Society of 
Friend's, near Manchester, in England, adopted some pe- 
culiar a iews, and banded themselves together. In 1758 
Ann Lee became a member of this society, and soon 
became prominent. In 1770 she claimed to receive 
revelations direct from heaven, which were accepted by 
her followers, and thus Shakerism was introduced. A 
few years later, at her direction, the society migrated to 
America. They first settled near Albany, New York. 
In 1787 Joseph Meacham, who succeeded Ann Lee as 
head of the society, collected her adherents at New Leb- 
anon. New York. This has been the head-quarters of 
Shakerism in America. In 180o missionaries were sent 
to what was then far west, and societies were organized: 
Four societies in Ohio, the most important of which is 
near Lebanon, Warren County, and two in Kentucky, 
in Jessamine County. 

Their belief is very peculiar. In their mode of worship 
they do not believe in any external performance whatever, 
without the sincere devotion of the heart with all the 
feelings of the soul. But in united assemblies it is nec- 
essary to have some form of worship. In this they think 
the hands and feet should be exercised also, aiming to 



EELIGIOUS DENOMINATION'S. 



425 



give the devotion of every active power of soul and 
body. Accordingly they sometimes exercise in a regular 
dance, while formed in straight lines ; and, sometimes, 
in a regular march around the room, in harmony with 
regular songs sung on the occasion. Shouting and 
clapping of hands, and many other operations, are fre- 
quently given — all of which have a tendency to keep 
the assembly alive, with their hearts and all the senses 
and feelings devoted to the service of God. 

They think that God has made successive and pro- 
gressive revelations of himself: The first to the patri- 
archs and to Abraham ; the second, to Moses ; the third, 
to J esus ; and the fourth, to Mother Ann Lee. They 
also believe in four heavens and four hells, correspond- 
ing to these dispensations. The first three are states of 
probation, where advance may be made to the fourth, or 
last. They are spiritualists in belief. They think it a 
great merit to live a life of celibacy, though the mar- 
riage relation is regarded as proper enough ; but the true 
believers must rise above it. They live in communities, 
the affairs of which are governed by elders chosen in 
equal proportion from the male and female members. 
Property is held in common. They employ themselves 
chiefly in tilling the soil, and are famous for their gar- 
dens and flower-seeds, medicinal herbs and extracts. 

MORMONS. 

The Mormons style themselves the " Latter-Day 
Saints." This sect was founded by Joseph Smith, who 
was born at Sharon, Vermont, in 1805, and killed at 
Carthage, Illinois, in 1844. From his own account we 
gather that, when he was fifteen years' old, he began to 
have visions. In September, 1823, an angel — Moroni — 



426 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



appeared to him in a vision, and told him that God had 
a very important work for him to do, and further in- 
formed him that a record, written on golden plates, was 
concealed in a hill near by; that this record contained 
an account of the ancient inhabitants of America, and 
God's dealing with them; and deposited with this record 
was a pair of spectacles, by the aid of which he could 
read the account. Four years later these plates and 
spectacles were delivered into his hands by the angel 
Moroni. The plates were eight inches long by seven 
wide, a little thinner than ordinary tin, and were bound 
together by three rings running through the whole. They 
were neatly engraved on each side, in hieroglyphics, in 
an unknown language. With the aid of his spectacles, 
Smith, sitting behind a curtain stretched across the 
room, read off the account which was written down by 
one Oliver Cowdry. This was printed in 1830, and 
forms a volume of several hundred pages. Three individ- 
ual.-, sometimes called the three witnesses, appended to 
it a statement that they saw the angel, the plates, and 
the engraving thereon. This book is now known as the 
Mormon Bible. 

It is a collection of sixteen different books, professing 
to be Avrittcn at different periods by successive prophets. 
The historical part is largely concerned with the early 
settlement of America, which it traces back to the Jews ; 
and an effort is made to account for those traces of what 
some of our scholars regard as evidence of a vanished 
race, possessed of a high civilization, variously known as 
Mound-Builders, Toltccs, etc. The religious part of the 
book is largely concerned with the discussion of just 
such questions as were receiving attention in Western 
New York at the time it appeared. It is a simple 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



427 



ethnological fact that scholars have completely demol- 
ished the idea that the Indians are in any way descend- 
ants of the Jews. It is equally well known that, imme- 
diately on the appearance of the book, Smith's immediate 
neighbors came forward with various contradictory stories 
he had told in reference to the golden plates. 

The three witnesses, who so solemnly averred that 
they saw the angel and golden plates, later quarreled 
with Smith, and every one of them acknowedged that his 
testimony was false. It is furthermore considered proven, 
by all except professing Mormons, that the Mormon 
Bible is based almost entirely on the manuscript of a 
novel written by Solomon Spaulding, but never pub- 
lished. He was fond of writing novels, but they were of 
such a poor quality that they were not published. In 
his time it was quite a favorite theory that the In- 
dians were descendants of the Jews. Spaulding wrote a 
romance weaving this fiction in. In his plot the manu- 
script on which this story was based was supposed to 
be found in a cave. This manuscript was sent to a 
printing-office, but never printed. ■ William Rigdon, who 
afterwards became Smith's right-hand man, is known to 
have copied this manuscript. A comparison of the 
Book of Mormon with the original manuscript of this 
novel satisfies all, except professing Mormons, that the 
Mormon Bible is simply the old novel revised and cor- 
rected by Smith and Rigdon. 

But the Mormons have prospered very greatly. As 
all know, their head-quarters are in Utah. Their organ- 
ization is excellent, from" a worldly point of view, and 
no little part of their success is due to the sagacity and 
skill of their leaders in this respect. As is also well 
known, they practice polygamy. It may not be so well 



428 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



known that the Book of Mormon repeatedly denounces 
this practice, also that so late as 1845 the formal decla- 
ration of the church was against it. But the Mormon 
leaders are not confined to their bible for light; they 
frequently receive revelations from on high, and thus 
polygamy was sanctioned. However, owing to vigorous 
act rnn of the United States government, the probabilities 
are that this feature will disappear. The Mormons 
teach that there are many gods, and that eminent saints 
become gods in heaven, and rise, one above another, in 
power and glory to infinity. Joseph Smith is now the 
god of this generation. Above him is Jesus, whose supe- 
rior god and lather is Adam. Above Adam is Jehovah, 
and above him is Elohim. 

THE JEWS. 

We have pointed out in a previous chapter that Ju- 
daism is quite different from Christianity. The Jews 
everywhere, all over the world, have endeavored to main- 
tain, as well as they could in their scattered condition, 
the religion of their fathers. There is quite a large Jew- 
ish population in the United States, and in all the larger 
cities we find their synagogues for worship. They are 
strict Monotheists, accept only the Old Testament as 
inspired, and reject the divinity of Christ. Most of them 
are still looking for the coming of their mcssiah, and the 
restoration to Palestine under their own king. Most of 
them are Pharisees, practice circumcision, and observe 
the seventh day as the day of rest. We know they 
have been shamefully treated in different parts of the 
world, and some nations that call themselves Christian 
display toward their Jewish subjects a most barbarous 
spirit. 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



429 



THE GEEEK CHURCH. 

This is one of the early Oriental churches. It was 
the church of the eastern division of the Roman Empire. 
Its introduction into America was largely due to the 
purchase of Alaska. In many things this church is 
very similar to the Roman Catholic Church. It is 
largely a religion of forms and priestly ministrations. 
They do not acknowledge the supremacy of the pope, yet 
they receive the traditions of the Church as authority as 
well as the Bible. The bishops are forbidden to marry, 
but if the clergy marry before ordination, they are not 
disturbed in this relation. The form of baptism is by 
immersion, three times administered, with the face down- 
ward. They make much of the baptism of infants, appar- 
ently regarding this rite as the new birth, and essential 
to salvation. Images in churches are forbidden, but 
great use is made of the crucifix and sign of the cross. 
In the preceding chapter we have shown the long train 
of events that finally led to the separation of this church 
from the Latin or Catholic Church, 



430 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Old Sestamem I^ophegies. 

NT] of tlio proofs that the Christian Scriptures 
arc given to men by inspiration, and are credit- 
able and profitable unto edification and instruc- 
tion in righteousness, is the prophecies con- 
tained in them, already fulfilled or yet to be accom- 
plished. These prophecies arc not shrewd guesses as to 
what might be looked for, nor are they cunningly de- 
vised statements in regard to future events, which may 
mean one thing or another with equal propriety. In 
stating some of the important prophecies, they will be 
found to fall under two classes: They are either fulfilled 
or are yet to be accomplished. 

It is here necessary to explain a little about fulfilled 
prophecies. A prediction that certain events will occur 
conditionally is fulfilled in two ways. We all see that 
if the conditions are met, it is fulfilled when the events 
occur; but if the conditions are not met, and, conse- 
quently, the events do not occur, the prophecy is still 
fulfilled. To illustrate: It was predicted that a descend- 
ant of David should sit on his throne forever, on condi- 
tion, however, if his children gave heed to walk in the 
way of David. This they did not do. The prophecy, 
has, however, been fulfilled; all that was predicted has 
come to pass. 

Let us, then, glance over the different books of the 
Bible, and note some of the prophecies made and the 
fulfillment of the same. 





JOSEPH BEFORE PHARAOH. 



431 



OLD TESTAMENT PEOPHECIES. 



433 



Genesis ii, 17. "In the day that thou eatest thereof 
thou shalt surely die." This is the first prophecy we 
meet. It is a sad prophecy, and no one doubts its literal 
fulfillment. While in form it directly applies to Adam, 
in intention, it also applies to Eve, and to every human 
being. It is here predicted that every one who sins 
shall die "in the day" when he sins. Now, since he 
that turns away from all his sins, and does "that which 
is lawful and right," shall surely live, 1 the death pre- 
predicted is moral death, not natural death. 2 Some have 
made strange mistakes on this point. 

Genesis ill, 15. The next prophecy is that of a 
savior from sin. Unto the serpent God said: "I will 
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between 
thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and 
thou shalt bruise his heel." This predicts the conflict 
between evil and good — the powers that work for evil 
and those that work for good. No one doubts that this 
conflict exists. As the years go by, Christ shall see of 
the travail of His soul, and be more and more satisfied. 
Right with Christ is sure to prevail. All the forces of 
evil shall have their head bruised. 

Genesis vi, 3. After many years we have this pre- 
diction : "My spirit shall not always strive with man, 
for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hun- 
dred and twenty years." Some different translations 
may help us to understand this. Gesenius translates it 
thus: "My spirit shall not forever be laid low in man." 
That is to say, the superior and divine nature was not 
always to be humiliated in the inferior. Other transla- 
tions have, in place of "strive with," "remain" or 
"dwell." Perhaps this prediction means that one hun- 

1 Ezekiel xviii, 21. 2 Page 188. 

26 



434 



TTIE BIBLE COMPANION. 



dred and twenty years was soon to be the allotted ago 
of man. 1 

Genesis ix, 25-27. The prophetic curse pronounced 
on Canaan. The fact that Canaan was cursed apparently 
by the help of divine foresight given to Noah is proof 
conclusive that he was the guilty one spoken of as 
Noah's "younger son." This is an instance of the use 
in the Bible of the word son where it properly means 
grandson. 2 The greatest interest, perhaps, centers in 
the twenty-seventh verse. For a long time the Semitic 
family were the dominant people in Western Asia. 
From the very earliest times down to the close of the 
Babylonian captivity they held the power in Western 
Asia. Since that time the Aryan race have taken the 
lead, and are now the ruling powers of the world. If 
the Aryans be, as supposed by some, the descendants 
of Japheth, then it is indeed true that God has "enlarged 
Japheth," and he "dwells in the tents of Shem," but we 
must be careful on this point. 8 

Genesis XV, 13. The prophecy of the Egyptian 
bondage. Notice that here the time is stated to be four 
hundred years. In Exodus we read that the actual time 
of their stay in Egypt was four hundred and thirty 
years. The chronology as given in the margin of our 
Bibles reduces this to two hundred and fifteen years. 
But these figures are simply the results of men's calcu- 
lations, and we have many reasons for supposing them 
not reliable. Notice that this prophecy seems to have 
been given in a vision. This is probably the way most 
of them were imparted. In this same chapter (verse 18) 
we read that the land of Canaan and some adjoining 
land should be given to Abraham's descendants. This 

•Prophecies relating to the deluge, see p. 204 *Pugo 487. 3 Page 4:<0. 



OLD TESTAMENT PEOPPIECTES. 



435 



was quite literally fulfilled in the time of David and 
Solomon. 1 

Genesis XVi, 11, 12. Here we have a prediction 
that Hagar, Sarah's maid, should have a son, who should 
be a wild man, and his posterity should be against all 
others. This has been most wonderfully fulfilled in the 
history of Ishmael and his seed, who are a part of the 
present Arab tribes. 

Genesis xxii, 18. This is a prophecy that in the 
seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth should be 
blessed. We may understand Abraham's seed as in- 
cluding all who have the faith of Abraham, and in a 
special sense Christ is meant as that seed. 2 This pre- 
diction has received a partial fulfillment, and there is a 
much more glorious accomplishment in store for it. 

Genesis XXVii, 29. Isaac's prophetic blessing of 
Jacob. It was fulfilled, yet not at the first. Esau was 
more powerful than Jacob as long as he lived. After 
many years the posterity of Jacob became and remained 
superior to that of Esau. This prophecy was no justifi- 
cation for the deception practiced by Jacob and his 
mother on Isaac. The prophecy would have become his- 
tory without their deceiving him, and Jacob would have 
escaped his humiliation and some of his troubles. 

Genesis xlix, 8-10. Jacob, near the close of life, 
prophetically announces some events in the coming lives 
of his children. The most important one of these state- 
ments relates to Judah and his offspring, Shiloh: "The 
scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from 
between his feet, until Shiloh come, and to him shall the 
gathering of the people be." Shiloh is a name for the 
Messiah, or Prince of Peace. Some of the rabbis taught 

1 Page 235. 2 Galatians iii, 16. 



436 



THE T.II1LE COMPANIONS 



that Shiloh moans "seed of Judah." David was of the 
tribe of Judah, and his descendants retained the scepter, 
while the Israelites had one, till the days of Herod the 
Great, in whose reign Christ was born. During a part 
of this time no Israelite held a scepter. 

The general results of the demands made by Moses 
that Pharaoh let the Hebrews go were predictions. 
There are not many predictions in Exodus; neither do 
we find many predictions in the remaining books of the 
Pentateuch. These are largely concerned with the law 
and history. In the fourteenth chapter of Numbers the 
people were told that only two of all the hosts that came 
ii] » out of Egypt should be permitted to set foot in the 
Holy Land; the others were doomed to Avander in the 
wilderness forty years. We may regard, if we wish, 
Moses' directions in Deuteronomy xxv, 17-19, in the na- 
ture of a prophecy. We read of the fulfillment of this in 
the book of Samuel. 

2 Samuel vii, 12-16. We will again pass hurriedly 
over several books of the Old Testament. They are not, 
indeed, destitute of prophetic language. They contain 
passages promising blessings, or breathing out threats of 
punishment. We have not space to examine them all. 
We have in these verses a prophetic promise given to 
David; and, in passing, let us call attention to the fact 
that this promise was communicated to Nathan in a vis- 
ion. In form, this is a promise of an everlasting king- 
dom. But there was a condition attached which is not 
here spoken of. This condition was: "If thy children 
take heed to their ways, to walk before me in truth, w r ith 
all their heart and with all their soul." 1 In a dream 
Solomon w r as warned that this was a conditional promise. 2 

1 1 Kings ii, 4. 2 1 Kings iii, 14. 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



437 



Even if no condition had been expressed, there are other 
texts in the Bible which plainly teach that in all such 
promises conditions are implied. 1 David's throne ceased 
to exist long ago, but this prophecy was fulfilled. 

1 Kings xi, 29-39. We have in this section the pro- 
phetic announcement of the coming dismemberment of 
the kingdom of Judah. Jeroboam was informed that he 
was to be king over ten tribes. We have seen in other 
places how this prophecy was fulfilled. 2 Notice in this 
instance, also, that the stability of the dynasty and the 
continuance of the kingdom was conditioned on fidelity 
to God and adherence to the religion of the fathers 
(verse 38). This condition was not met. Jeroboam's 
dynasty was soon overthrown, and the kingdom itself 
existed only about two hundred and fifty years. 

We have also in First and Second Kings the many 
prophetic announcements of the prophets Elijah and 
Elisha. They mainly related to events which soon come 
to pass, such as impending famine or speedy deliverance, 
and the rise and fall of kings. They mostly referred to 
the kingdom of Israel, and their fulfillment was not far 
distant in time. 

2 Kings xlx, 20-34. It was a time of great trouble 
in Jerusalem when this comforting prediction of Isaiah 
concerning Sennacherib was made. The king of Assyria 
had sent most threatening and insolent letters to Jerusa- 
lem, demanding the surrender of the city. Hezekiah 
spread the letter before the Lord, and Isaiah comforts 
him with this promise: "The king of Assyria . 
shall not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there." 
Then we read how wonderfully was this fulfilled (verses 
3-5). It would seem that Sennacherib heard that Tir- 

1 1 1 Samuel ii, 30 ; Ezekiel xxiii, 13-19. 2 Page 250. 



438 



THE BIBLE COMPANION 



hakah, king of a part of Egypt, was marching to attack 
him (verses 8, 9). So he either abandoned the siege of 
Libnah, or else, having taken it, marched to meet the 
Egyptians. The sudden destruction of his army overtook 
him. It should not read the angel, but an angel, a mes- 
senger of the Lord, went forth and slew them. It was 
probably a desert storm, such as we have known of de- 
stroying entire armies. 

Isaiah vii, 10-17. We pass at once over the poetic- 
books of the Bible and come to the prophetic books 
proper. In this section, we have prophesied the birth 
of a child, which birth was to be a sign to Ahaz. The 
chief interest of it lies in the fact that Matthew speaks 
of the birth of Christ as a fulfillment of it, 1 But in no 
very direct way can the birth of Christ be a fulfillment 
of this prophecy. Let us examine this point a little. It 
i- admitted that instead of a virgin, in verse fourteen, it 
should be the virgin, implying that it had reference to 
some well-known virgin. Furthermore, the word trans- 
lated virgin does not mean a virgin in the strict sense. 
It means simply a young girl of a manageable age, or 
even a young wife. There is another Hebrew word that 
means just what our word virgin does, but that word was 
not used here. 

Immanuel means God with its, and this child, we are 
told, was to be a sign to Ahaz, for (verse 16) before it 
would be old enough to refuse the evil and choose the 
good, ( the kings of both Syria and Ephraim should be 
dead. Every rule of explaining Bible predictions re- 
quires us to refer this language to a child soon to be 
born of some well-known virgin or young bride, in the 
time of Ahaz. Probably Isaiah had recently married, 

1 Matthew i, 23. 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



439 



and this prediction refers to his own son. The child 
born by Mary was not called Immanuel, God with us, 
but Jesus, Savior. And the birth of Jesus could not 
have been a sign to Ahaz, who had been dead about 
seven hundred years when Jesus was born. We will 
show, in another place, in what sense Matthew meant that 
the birth of Christ was to be considered a fulfillment of 
this prophecy. 

Isaiah viii, 1-4. We have here a prophecy similar 
to the last concerning another child of Isaiah. This 
seems also to have been a sign to Israel (verse 18). The 
name, written before his birth, was Maher-Shalal-hash- 
baz, a symbolical name, meaning hasten the prey, rush on 
the spoil. Before this child should be able to talk plainly 
(verse 4), "the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Sa- 
maria shall be taken away." This boy we are to regard 
as a younger brother of Immanuel, and they were given 
symbolical names, and predictions made of destruction 
awaiting the enemies of Judah, which was to come to 
pass before they had reached many years. You must 
notice this Oriental and symbolic method of procedure. 
These children were to serve as signs to Israel from the 
Lord of hosts (verse 18). 

Isaiah ix, 6, 7. This we are to regard as a predic- 
tion of Christ. The name of the child shows that Christ 
is meant. This prediction is in part fulfilled. The child 
has been born, but "of the increase of his government 
and peace there shall be no end," refers to something 
not yet fully accomplished. The' throne of David is here 
to be understood of Christ's spiritual kingdom, as son of 
David, not of an earthly throne and kingdom. 

Isaiah xi. This chapter is a prediction of Christ's 
kingdom. This probably includes blessings not yet 



440 



THE BIBLE COMrANIOX. 



enjoyed. Some of it is figurative; such as "the wolf shall 
dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with 
the kid . . . and the lion shall eat straw like the 
ox." Such expressions are not to be taken literally. The 
lion will never come to cat straw or grass, as cattle do. 
Enmity shall be taken away from men, and they shall 
no longer seek to kill and destroy each other. 

Isaiah xiii and xiv. The burden of Babylon. These 
chapters contain a fearful prediction of the complete de- 
struction of Babylon. " It shall never be inhabited, 
neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to gener- 
ation. " This prophecy has been quite literally accom- 
plished. Babylon is a ruin, and has been for many years. 
Should it be again inhabited, it would not show that this 
prediction is false, only that it did not mean all that it 
has been taken as meaning. For ever, or the original 
Hebrew word, does not always mean what we mean by 
forever. Age lasting or age enduring well translates the 
original, neither of which expressions of necessity means 
for ever. 

This was a remarkable prediction. No one who 
should judge of the then probable future of Babylon, from 
what it was and had been, would conclude that it was to 
become an uninhabitable waste. It was then a great 
city, with high and strong Avails — a part of the great 
Assyrian Empire. This prediction was probably written 
a little while before the destruction of Sennacherib's 
army, when he was at the height of his power, and 
Babylon was a strong, rich city. Babylon was probably 
built in the early part of the first Chaldean Empire, 
some two thousand or more years before Christ. A city 
that was so strong, and had continued so long, would not 
be thought liable to soon be uninhabited. 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



441 



Though the destruction and desolation is now very 
complete, yet its overthrow was not sudden. It contin- 
ued a populous city for centuries after this prediction. 
It was the metropolis of the second Chaldean Empire 
during all of its continuance. During the Medo-Persian 
Empire it was a populous city, and the capital most of 
the time. It was the capital of Alexander's empire, so 
far as it had one. In Babylon he died, almost four hun- 
dred years after this prediction. The destruction of 
Babylon was a topic about which many of the Old Testa- 
ment prophets felt moved to speak. Its present desolate 
surroundings show that these predictions were wonder- 
fully fulfilled. 

Isaiah XV and xvi. The burden of Moab. Here we 
have a prediction of the destruction of Moab, a nation often 
at war with Judah in this time of trouble. Moab was 
doubtless rejoicing over Judah. We notice this verse : 
"Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the 
glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great 
multitude." This prediction is supposed to have been 
made 726 B. C. It was probably fulfilled by Shal- 
maneser, who invaded Palestine and some adjoining 
countries 723 B. C. 

Isaiall XviL Predictions in reference to Damascus, 
Ephraim, and Syria. The part concerning Damascus does 
not seem to be very literally fulfilled. It is not taken 
away from being a city, and is not a ruinous heap. It 
has often been captured, but is still a beautiful city. 
Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, captured it about a 
year after this prediction, and carried off the inhabit- 
ants to Kir, a region located between the Caspian and 
Black Sea, the modern Georgia. Judging from verse 
three, this may simply mean that it was to cease to be 



442 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



the residence of a king. Ephraim, hy which is meant 
the kingdom of Israel, was carried away into captivity 
in 721 B. C. 

Isaiah xviii. This chapter predicts "woe to the 
land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers 
of Ethiopia." This is sometimes called a threatening to 
Ethiopia. It is difficult to show from history just what 
it means. 

Isaiah xix. The burden of Egypt. History ac- 
quaints us with the very complete fulfillment of this 
prediction. It predicts civil war. From an inscription 
found in Egypt, we learn that about 735 B. C. Egypt 
was divided up among no fewer than twenty-two princes, 
of whom four bore the title of king. Civil war at once 
ensued, and for one hundred years the country was con- 
vulsed with strife. Such a condition of affairs invited 
foreign conquest. It was conquered no less than five 
times, and ruled over by eight foreign monarchs. The 
cruel lord, of verse four, may be true of at least two 
Assyrian kings, who overran Egypt, and inflicted great 
cruelties on the people. 

In verse eighteen Ave have a prediction which was 
minutely fulfilled many years later. Thousands of Jews 
went down to Egypt during the troublesome times when 
Antiochus Epiphanes 1 was oppressing the Jews. We 
know that verse nineteen was literally fulfilled also. 
About the year 170 B. C, Onias, the son of Onias III, 
the high priest, left Palestine for Egypt. He planned to 
build a temple in Egypt, fearing the one in Jerusalem 
would be destroyed. Permission being obtained from 
Ptolemy, he built an altar in the temple of Bubastis, in 
Heliopolis, in imitation of the altar in Jerusalem. Offer- 

^age 447. 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



443 



ings and sacrifices were made on this altar until about 
the year 73 B. C. 

Isaiah XX. This predicts the carrying away of 
Egyptians and Ethiopians in great disgrace. About 711 
B. C, Sargon, of Assyria, carried away many prisoners 
from the banks of the Nile to the Tigris. Isaiah abounds 
in "burdens" against cities and countries, which were 
fulfilled with marvelous exactness. He also pronounced 
judgments against Jerusalem, often followed by promised 
blessings. We are probably to regard these as spir- 
itual blessings promised to the spiritual Israel, and not 
to the outward material Israel ; and by spiritual Israel 
we understand the Christian Church. 

Isaiah xlii, 1-4, and liii. Here we have predictions 
respecting Christ. Their striking fulfillment is a ground 
of confidence in the truth of the Christian Scriptures. 
The predictions in the latter part of Isaiah, in the main, 
have respect to Christ's spiritual kingdom. We must 
guard against too great literalness in interpreting this 
section. Jews predicting the conversion of men to Chris- 
tianity would naturally say that they come up to Mount 
Zion, or to Jerusalem, where David would be their king. 
And this new kingdom, which the God of heaven was to 
set up, would be called David's kingdom. We need only 
read the description of New Jerusalem, given in Reve- 
lation, 1 to understand such descriptions are not to be 
taken literally. Should we do so in that instance, we 
must imagine a city fifteen hundred miles high. We are 
to regard much of what Isaiah has to say on this sub- 
ject as simply Oriental, poetic expressions, conveying in 
figurative language an idea of the exceeding value and 
greatness of Christianity. 

1 Rev. xxi, 16. 



444 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Jeremiah XXV. In this chapter we have foretold 

the seventy years of captivity. The beginning of Je- 
hoiakim's reign is not very certainly known. Several 
dates are given, 611, 610, and 608 B. C. Rawlinson 
thinks the latter is the correct date. As this prophecy 
was given in the fourth year of his reign, it would have 
been 604 B. C. It seems probable that Nebuchadnezzar 
came to Jerusalem the year previous, or 605 B. C, and 
carried off some hostages. 1 The careful reader will 
notice in these two verses 2 an apparent discrepancy as 
ti» when Nebuchadnezzar became king. For some years 
before his father's death, Nebuchadnezzar was com- 
mand sr-in-chief of the Chaldean forces, and probably 
ex >rcised considerable kingly powers. It is not strange 
that Hebrew writers, who knew a good deal more about 
him than of his father, should speak of him as king, even 
before he was crowned. 

If you count these hostages taken away 60-5 B. C. as 
the beginning of the captivity, seventy years would bring 
i;s to 535 B. C. Babylon fell before the forces of Cyrus 
about 538 B. C. Cyrus probably did not immediately 
ascend the throne, but Darius, a Median king, ruled for 
two years, so it was probably 536 B. C. when Cyrus 
commenced his reign. As the prophet is using a round 
number, it is evident that this prophecy was strik- 
ingly fulfilled. 3 

Jeremiah xxviii. There were false prophets as 
well as true. Here we have an instance of this class. 
Hananiah predicted that the captivity "would last but two 
years. We read in the same chapter how signally he 
was punished for this prophecy. 

Jeremiah xlii, 8-13, and xivi, 13-26. Jeremiah 

1 Daniel i, 1. 2 Daniel i, 1, and Jeremiah xxv, 1. 'See page 270, note 1. 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



445 



was in Egypt when he gave utterance to these predic- 
tions. He foretells the conquest of Egypt by the Chal- 
deans. Ezekiel, a contemporaneous prophet, also lifted 
up his voice in prophecy against Egypt. 1 This latter 
writer expressly states that the desolation of Egypt was 
to continue "forty years." 2 These predictions were made 
a few years before the great Chaldean invasion of Egypt. 
Two inscriptions — one, Egyptian, long known, but mis- 
understood ; the other, Babylonian, discovered in 1878 — 
show that these predictions came to pass some five or six 
years later. 3 

Ezekiel XXVi, 7-14. The destruction of Tyre fore- 
told. This prediction against Tyre Avas fulfilled after a 
siege of thirteen years by Nebuchadnezzar. He was dis- 
appointed in the results, however. It is probable the 
spoils had been largely carried off. Ezekiel speaks of 
recompensing him for his trouble in this matter by 
giving him Egypt for a spoil, of which we have just 
spoken. 

The predictions in the book of Daniel have occasioned 
more diverse interpretations than those of any other 
book, unless Revelation be an exception. The predic- 
tions in these two books are quite similar in many as- 
pects. They were both written in view of great perse- 
cutions, near at hand, awaiting their religious brethren, 
and were designed to cheer them with the prospects of 
a large measure of deliverance. In order to understand 
the prophecies, it is necessary to have a little outline of 
the history of events for several centuries after the fall 
of Jerusalem; this will render it quite plain that the 
prophecies in this book refer to this time, and have been 
wonderfully fulfilled. 

Ezekiel xxix, 18, 19; xxx, 10. 2 Ezekiel xxix, 12. 3 Rawlinson. 



448 



THE BIHLK COMPANION. 



The second Chaldean monarchy, founded by Nabo- 
polassar, but raised to its zenith of power by his son 
Nebuchednezzar, was flourishing at the time these 
prophecies were written. Daniel was a captive at 
Babylon, the luxuriant capital. This empire was a very 
extensive one. Its sway extended from the fertile val- 
ley of the Tigris and Euphrates, west to the Mediter- 
ranean, including Palestine. The duration of this em- 
pire was short. It was founded G2o B. C. It fell before 
the forces of the Medes and Persians, 538 B. C. The 
Persian Empire, which followed, embraced in its folds all 
the territory of the Babylonian, and much besides on the 
north and east. The Persian Empire lasted a little over 
two hundred years, when it in turn gave way to the 
forces of Alexander the Great. His empire included a 
vast stretch of country, from the Caspian, on the north, 
t'» the Indian Ocean; from the Indus, on the east, to the 
Nile, on the west. This empire had been created by the 
military genius and prowess of Alexander, and collapsed on 
his death, in 323 B. C, about six years after his conquest. 

Alexander left no heir capable of exercising authority. 
Twenty-one years of great confusion ensued, but finally, 
in 301 B. C, we find four kingdoms established, occupy- 
ing the territory of Alexander's empire. Cassander had 
Macedonia and Greece. Lysimachus had Thrace, Bi- 
thynia, etc. Selucus Xicator had Syria, Armenia, and 
the eastern countries. Ptolemy had Egypt, Libya, Pales- 
tine, and Arabia. Of these, the Syrian kingdom of 
SelucUs Xieator was the largest. This power and the 
Egyptian power were often at war with each other. 
Palestine, with the exception of a few years, remained in 
possession of Egypt for one hundred years. Antiochus 
III, called the Great, about 204 B. C, overrun and con- 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



447 



quered Palestine and Coele-Syria, and annexed them to 
Syria. He was succeeded by his son Selucus Philopater, 
of whom there was nothing worthy of mention. This 
king was murdered by Heliodorus, a Syrian general, who 
sought to make himself king. Antiochus IV, surnamed 
Epiphanes, brother of the murdered king, obtaining help 
was able to suppress Heliodorus. 

The rightful heir to the throne was Demetrius I, 
then a hostage at Rome. But his claims were not con- 
sidered, and Antiochus Epiphanes became king. He 
greatly oppressed his Jewish subjects. The books of 
Maccabees contain considerable history of these events. 
He had to raise a great tribute for the Romans, and he 
made great exactions from his Jewish subjects. Onias 
was the rightful high priest. He was deposed from his 
office, and it was given to his brother Jason, in consider- 
ation of the payment of three hundred and sixty talents 
yearly. Jason in turn was deposed, and the office given 
to Menelaus, his brother, he promising to pay six hun- 
dred and sixty talents. Menelaus put to death Onias, the 
rightful high priest, about 174 B. C. At this time, 
Ptolemy VI, Philometor, was reigning in Egypt. He 
was a nephew of the murdered king. The historical 
light shed on these ancient times is very scarce. It seems 
certain that he put forth claims to the throne of Syria, 
and there is some evidence that he was crowned king of 
Syria. Be that as it may, Antiochus Epiphanes speedily 
overrun Egypt and effectually humbled his pride. 

Subsequently he would have conquered and annexed 
the whole country, had not the Romans interfered. He 
turned his rage against Jerusalem. The city was plun- 
dered ; the inhabitants were murdered, those who could 
not escape ; the temple was polluted and made unfit for 



us 



TIIK HI RLE COMPANION. 



the Jewish worship, and all sacrifices were made to cease. 
It was at this time that the Jews rose under the leaders 
of the valiant sons of Mattathias, and, under the good 
providence of God, wore enabled to win their independ- 
ence. Three and a half years after the profanation of 
the temple it was purified, and worship was again made 
in it. 

Thus far the historical outline. Now let us return to 
prophecies of Daniel, made, remember, when Daniel was 
at Babylon, and Nebuchednezzar was king. In the sec- 
ond chapter of Daniel, we have an account of Nebuched- 
nezzar's dream, and the interpretation. This interpre- 
tation is in part a prophecy. He sees an image in the 
human form, with four different parts made up of 
diverse metals. The head is gold, and symbolizes the 
second Chalden Empire, with Nebuchednezzar as its great 
conquering king, and restorer of Babylon, or builder of 
portions of its great glory and renown. The second por- 
tion, the arm and chest of silver, represents the Medo- 
Persian Empire, the one that immediately succeeded the 
Chaldean, and by which this second Chaldean kingdom 
was destroyed. It included, as we have seen, Palestine 
and Jerusalem, the city of God's worship, "the pleasant 
land," to a Jew the type of heaven. 

The third portion, the lower part of the trunk of the 
body, was brass or bronze. In the Bible, the word ren- 
dered brass usually means bronze. This part is a sym- 
bol of Alexander's short-lived empire. We must notice 
that it immediately succeeded the Persian Empire, and 
included Palestine, the home of God's people. So far, all 
are agreed as to the powers symbolized by this image. 
But when we come to the fourth division, our Bible 
scholars differ in opinion. One class think this fourth 



OLD TESTAMENT PEOPPIECIES. 



449 



part represents the successors of Alexander's empire, 
and especially Syria, whose capital was at Antioch. The 
other class assume that Rome was meant. We think 
the first class is correct. At any rate, these were the 
kingdoms immediately succeeding Alexander's empire, 
and included Palestine. And of these, the Syrian was 
the largest, and ultimately included the Holy Land. 
There seems to be no good reason for thinking it meant 
Rome. 

The stone cut out of the mountain without hand sym- 
bolizes the kingdom which the God of heaven set up, 
a spiritual kingdom, of which Christ is king, which was 
existing while Christ was visible on earth, since He was 
then king. 1 We are not to understand by this a literal 
rock that covers all the earth. 

Daniel's first vision, in chapter vii, covers much 
the same ground. The costumes, the figures, are differ- 
ent. We have four beasts that come up from the sea, 
diverse one from another. The first one, that resembled 
a lion, symbolized the Chaldean power; the second, like 
to a bear, the Medo-Persian power ; the third, the leopard, 
Alexander's kingdom. The fourth had no representative 
animal; it differed from the others more than they dif- 
fered from one another. Our scholars differ again as to 
the power meant by the fourth beast. We regard it as 
the successors of Alexander, and mainly Syria. It was 
truly diverse from the others. The expression, "Strong 
exceedingly," said of this fourth power, is probably 
affirmed not of real power, but of the injurious effects of 
power as brought to bear on the people of Palestine, 
where it was truly terrible and dreadful. This beast 
had ten horns, and then one sprang up that rooted out 

1 Matthew xxvii, 11 ; John xviii, 33-37. 
27 



450 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



three of the ten. A horn was usually the symbol of a 
king, as a beast was of a kingdom. There were ten 
kings of the Syrian dynasty preceding Antiochus Epiph- 
anes, counting in the three that he suppressed, which 
were Heliodorus, Demetrius I, and Ptolemy VI, Philo- 
metor. Syria is the "North" and Egypt the "South" 
spoken of in this chapter. 

Some understand the fourth beast to be Rome; but 
wo have to observe, in the first place, that the Roman 
power over Palestine was gentle and kind, respecting 
their temple and worship, until the last struggle of the 
Jews against Rome; and even then it is thought that 
some of the fanatical Jews burned their temple; and, in 
the second place, there arc no known facts in the history 
of Rome illustrative of the ten horns, whether we under- 
stand horns to be symbols of kings or kingdoms. But 
the prophecy is seen to be very strikingly fulfilled if Ave 
understand it to refer to the successors of Alexander's 
kingdom, and mainly Syria. 

The inscrutable wisdom of Providence favored Daniel 
with still another prophetic vision of what were to be 
the changes in governing powers in Asia, and of the 
severe oppressions that were to weigh down the Jews in 
Palestine, the " Pleasant Land." This is contained in 
the eighth chapter, and no one who reads it, with this 
historical outline in mind, can help being struck with 
astonishment. The Medo-Persian Empire is symbolized 
by a ram with two horns, one of which represents the 
Modes; the other the Persians, the stronger of the two 
powers, which, however, came up later. Alexander's 
empire is symbolized by a he-goat, which came from the 
west, and overthrew this power; "and there was none 
that could deliver the ram out of his hand." The nota- 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



451 



ble horn between his eyes represents Alexander. When 
Alexander died this horn was broken off, and four nota- 
ble ones came up toward the four winds of the heaven. 
This very plainly refers to the four kingdoms founded 
by his generals. 

From one of these there came up a "a notable horn," 
which waxed great toward "the South" — which means 
Egypt — toward the East, and toward the "Pleasant 
Land," which signifies Palestine. This very plainly 
refers to Antiochus Epiphanes. There is a statement 
made that he should take away the daily sacrifice for 
two thousand and three hundred days (verses 13-15). 
This has occasioned some discussion. It may be enough 
to say that there is no warrant for assuming that the 
word day means in prophecy anything different from 
what we understand by it. 1 

Twenty-three hundred days is equivalent to six years, 
four months, and twenty days, counting three hundred 
and sixty days to the year and thirty days to the month, 
as the Jews did. In July or August, B. C. 171, Anti- 
ochus plundered the temple to get the tribute promised 
by Menelaus. At this time Onias III, the rightful high 
priest, was killed. A riot ensued, and the temple was 

1 We well know there is a class of interpreters who teach that a day in proph- 
ecy means a year, and a year means three hundred and sixty years; in other words, 
that we are to multiply the time stated by three hundred and sixty. The simple 
fact is that, in explaining Scripture, as in everything else, men are often tempted 
by a fondness of the marvelous to overlook simple explanations for far-fetched 
and marvelous ones. There are but three texts in the Bible relied on to establish 
this singular theory. These are, Numbers xiv, 33, Ezekiel iv, 1-6, and Daniel ix, 
24—27. The first two are very readily explained; and you must notice the words 
day and year are used in exactly the sense we use them. We will soon consider 
the third text. Time, in the Bible, means just what it does in all literatures. 
When we talk about the days of the Eevolutionary War, what would we think of 
the common sense of a foreigner who would, from such expressions, seek to show 
that the Americans meant a year when they said day ? 



452 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



polluted. The 25th of December, 165 B. C, as near as 
you can well conic to two thousand three hundred days 
after this event, Judas Maccabeus purified the temple and 
restored the sacrifice. This we regard as the fulfillment 
of the prophecy. During all this time there had been 
no rightful high priest. 1 

In the ninth chapter we have another prophecy con- 
cerning the time that was to elapse before the coming of 
the Messiah. In our translation the time is stated as 
being "seventy weeks." The word used in the Bible, 
translated weeks, is from a word meaning simply sevens. 
It may be sevens of anything. This word has two forms 
of the plural — one fur the masculine gender, and one 
for the feminine. In every case in the Bible, outside 
of Daniel, the word translated weeks is the feminine 
form of sevens. Daniel uses the masculine form of sevens. 
This alone would seem to show that he was not talking 
about days; in fact, when he means a week, he uses the 
expression "sevens of days." 2 Now, we know the Jews 
divided the years into groups of seven. Every seventh 
year was a rest-year. As he did not, as is evident, mean 
a week of seven days, we conclude he refers to sevens 
of years. 

This prophecy was probably fulfilled in its spirit. 
The person meant in the twenty-fifth verse is generally 
supposed to mean Christ. The article is not used, and, 
properly, the expression should be, "an anointed one, a 
prince." We do not know of any decree to restore and 
rebuild Jerusalem given seventy sevens of years, or four 
hundred and ninety years, before Christ. The twentieth 

'We must 6tate that 6oroe regard this part of the prophecy as referring to 
Rome. We can not think that Daniel refers to Rome at all. 
2 This is the case in verses 2 and 3 of chapter x. 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



453 



year of Artaxerxes is usually given as the year in which 
this decree was made; 1 and this is usually mentioned as 
being B. C. 445. If we add to this the thirty years of 
Christ's life before He began His ministry, we still fall 
short of four hundred and ninety years. Perhaps the 
command to rebuild referred to in the prophecy is one 
not recorded in the Bible, which would not be strange ; 
or, perhaps, our chronology is at fault, or yet, again, we 
may conclude that the prophet is simply using a round 
number, and that a feAv years more or less does not 
signify. 

In the eleventh chapter we have more complete 
prophecies in regard to the troublesome times of Anti- 
ochus Epiphanes. Egypt is the South, Syria the North. 
Any one who will take history and compare it with this 
account will be amazed at the accuracy with which the 
conflicts between these two powers are sketched. The 
triumph of Antiochus is foretold. It predicts his 
conquest of Egypt. It leaves him in the height 
of his power, and especially of his persecution against 
the Jews. We have seen how he vented his rage on 
them because he was not allowed b}^ Rome to completely 
subjugate Egypt. 2 He took the city, and put to death 
many of the inhabitants. A statue of Jupiter Olympus 
was set up in the temple and worshiped. Swine's broth 
was sprinkled over the temple, and it was otherwise 
defiled. The sixth verse of the next chapter is a query 
of "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" 
and the answer, given in the next verse, is, "Time, times, 
and a half" — that is, three years and a half. The facts 
are, the city was taken in May, 168 B. C. Just about 
three and a half years afterward (December, 165 B. C.) 

1 Nehemiah ii, 1. 2 Compare xi, 30-40. 



454 



THE BIBLE COM TAN ION. 



Judas Maccabeus purified the temple and restored the 
daily sacrifice. 

In the eleventh verse of the same chapter we notice 
the number of days during which the daily sacrifices 
should be taken away is given as twelve hundred and 
ninety; this is thirty days more than the three years and 
a half just mentioned. I low shall we explain this dis- 
crepancy? The most probable explanation is this: The 
number seven was a sacred number among the Hebrews. 
Many instances of its use as such occur to all. Prophets 
often used it, or some multiple, to express time in proph- 
ecy. The seventy years of captivity, during which Jeru- 
salem was to lay desolate, was a round number, and we 
are not to consider a year or two as a failure of the pre- 
diction. We have seen that this is a probable explana- 
tion of Daniel's seventy sevens of years. In a similar 
way we would suggest that three and a half years, just 
half of seven, is also a round number, while the twelve 
hundred and ninety days was probably the exact number 
of days from the setting up of the statue of Jupiter 
Olympus to the purification of the temple. 

Still another period is mentioned in the twelfth verse : 
"Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand 
three hundred and five and thirty days." This period 
is forty-five days more than the number just explained. 
The facts are these: In the early part of 164 B. C. 
Antiochus, before he heard what Judas Maccabeus 
had done, marched his army beyond the Euphrates, 
and, coming to Persepolis, he undertook to plunder 
the temple there. The inhabitants, however, resisted 
him, and drove him in disgrace from the city. He 
fled to Ecbatana, and there learned of the great vie- 
tory won by Judas Maccabeus, and the purification 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



455 



of the temple. 1 He thereupon was greatly angered, 
and set out immediately to return to Syria, and threat- 
ened to annihilate the Jews. On his way he was taken 
sick and suddenly died, probably of cholera. It would 
take some time for the news of this important event to 
reach the Jews, and we can imagine with how much joy 
it would be received. We suggest that this is the end 
of the period named. 2 

It will be seen that the prophecies of Daniel are of 
a very remarkable character. There are none others 
just like them in the Bible. We do not think that any 
of them come down later than the time of Christ, and 
we think they have all been fulfilled, the exception being, 
possibly, the resurrection spoken of in the twelfth chap- 
ter, which may be still in the future. They are so ex- 
actly in accord with the history of events that some 
critics have not hesitated to declare they are history and 
not prophecy. This is not the place to consider this 
question. 3 To admit that principle, however, would be 
to disprove all prophecy. We can easily see how such 
writings would cheer the hearts of the Jews during the 
troublesome times following the disruption of the Gre- 
cian Empire of Alexander. 

We come now to the prophecies of Hosea. A single 
explanation will save some confusion. The prophet often 
speaks of Judah and of Israel, where he uses the words 
in a spiritual sense, meaning thereby the Church of 

] 1 Maccabees vi. 2 See Stuart on the Apocalypse, vol. ii, Excursus v. 

s Some writers have declared that the Belshazzar of Daniel was a purely ficti- 
tious personage, and it was formerly impossible to find any king in history who 
could, in any fair way, be identified with this man. This difficulty is now 
removed. Nabonidus was the last king of Babylon, but his oldest son (Bel-sar-uz- 
zar) was associated with him in government, and was the king in command in 
Babylon when it fell. (See Rawlinson.) 



456 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Christ. For instance, in the first chapter he speaks of 
Israel as "Lo ammi," meaning 11 not my jicoplc" — that is, 
they are now rejected ; yet in the tenth and eleventh 
verses he says they shall be in number like the sands 
of the sea; that Israel and Judah shall reunite and ap- 
point them one head. In view of the facts of the case, 
we must either reject this as true or else understand by 
the anion of Judah and Israel the union of all Chris- 
tians, when, as Christ says, "they shall have one flock, 
one Shepherd." This prophecy is not yet fully com- 
pleted. The same idea is also brought out in the second 
and third chapters. 

Joel ii, 28-32. This is a promise of the giving of 
the Holy Spirit on all flesh, all nations, and on both 
sexes, all ages and conditions of persons. It has refer- 
ence to the gospel dispensation. It is a sufficient justi- 
fication for permitting women to pray and preach in the 
church, where social usages permit men and women to 
associate as equals. The people to whom Paul addressed 
his remarks on this subject were not yet advanced to 
this point. 3 This prophecy will continue to be fulfilled 
to all time. 

Joel iii, 20-21. We must here notice the use of the 

word Judah in a spiritual sense. It is quite probable 
that we are to regard the nations threatened in a simi- 
lar light, as all the wicked enemies of righteousness. 

Amos i and ii. Amos was a contemporary of Isaiah, 
and he predicts evils against some of the same nations 
that Isaiah did, but the language used is more definite. 
Isaiah predicts the overthrow of Damascus and Syria; 
Amos, more definite, says they shall be carried away 
captives to Kir. We have already shown how this was 

iPage in. 



OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



457 



fulfilled. The prophecies against the Philistines then 
follow. This was fulfilled in the reigns of Uzziah and 
Hezekiah. The woe is pronounced successively against 
Tyre, Edom, the children of Amnion and Moab ; and 
finally, predictions concerning Judah and Israel. 

We have already referred to Obadiah's message 
against Edom. 1 The prophecy of Jonah is a peculiar 
one. He was sent to Nineveh to proclaim, "Yet forty 
days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed." His expression 
in regard to the size of Nineveh is ambiguous, since we 
can not decide whether it took three clays to travel around 
the city, or across it, or whether it required this length 
of time to visit the streets and squares and proclaim his 
mission. As the historian, Rawlinson, makes it about 
eight miles in circuit, we incline to the latter opinion. 
This prophecy was fulfilled, simply because the implied 
condition — that is, repentance — was met. 

Micah i. This chapter is another prediction of the 
destruction of the kingdom of Israel, then fast approaching. 
Neither Judah nor Israel were wanting prophets to warn 
of evil, and to urge them to repentance. 

Micah iv, 1-8. These are predictions of the latter- 
day blessings and glories of the Christian Church. Verses 
nine and ten predict the captivity of Judah in Babylon. 
Then follow verses that introduce a new series of troub- 
les to the Jews, after their return from Babylon. We 
may refer verse eleven to the time of Antiochus 
Epiphanes, when many nations were gathered against 
Jerusalem; and, in the twelfth verse, the triumph of the 
Maccabean princes seems foretold. 

Micah V. This chapter contains the remarkable pre- 
diction concerning the birthplace of Christ. The most 

'Page 85. 



458 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



of this chapter seems to refer to the final overthrow of 
the Asmonean kingdom, by Herod the Great, assisted by 
some Roman legions. And we know that it was during 
the reign of this Herod that "Shiloh," the Prince of 
Peace, was born in Bethlehem Ephratah. 

Nahum i. This prophecy of Nahum bears on 
Nineveh and Assyria, and especially on the destruction 
of Sennacherib's army, as foretold by Isaiah. Some of 
this "burden" is probably history. It is thought that 
Naham wrote alter the destruction of the army. 1 It is 
a mistake to suppose this army was destroyed near 
Jerusalem. Lower Egypt was the place of its overthrow. 
We arc not to assume that Sennacherib was a particularly 
bad man because he met with this disaster and was 
afterwards assassinated. The fourteenth verse of this 
chapter is regarded by some as a prediction that no son 
of Sennacherib's should sit on his throne after him. 
This can not, however, be the meaning, since they did 
occupy his throne after him. 

Nahum iii, 1-19. This is thought by some to be a pro- 
phetic account of the destruction of Nineveh. If so, it 
is a highly poetic and strongly figuratively description 
of it. Little is known of this siege and overthrow. 
Even the date is in dispute, though probably not far 
from 625 B. C. The last king of Assyria, despairing of 
success, is said to have shut himself up in his palace 
and ordered it set on fire, and in this way the proud and 
mighty empire and its capital perished. 

Habakkuk and Zephaniah abound in prophecy, but no 
new subjects are introduced. We will, therefore, pass at 
once to those prophets who prophesied after the restora- 
tion, when so many of the predictions of the older 

1 Cowles " On the Minor Prophets." 



OLD TESTAMENT PEOPHECIES. 



459 



prophets had been fulfilled. You will notice their writ- 
ings contain much less of threatenings and more of 
blessings. 

Haggai ii, IX. In form this is a prophecy that the 
glory of the new temple should exceed that of Solomon's. 
This we know was not true of the glory of the building. 
We must give some spiritual meaning to the words. 

Zechariah abounds in visions, symbols, and prophe- 
cies. Some of them seem to designate the persecution 
of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, and are called 
fightings against Jerusalem. They are described just as 
a Jewish writer would be apt to describe them, as wars 
against Judah and Jerusalem. Some probably refer to 
yet distant future events. 

Malach! ill. The messenger in verse one refers to 
John the Baptist, and "the Lord whom ye seek" is 
Christ. We should regard verse twelve as referring to 
the Christian Church, and not to the literal Judah. The 
next chapter probably refers to judgment upon the 
wicked in time, here upon the earth, and ought not to be 
taken literally, for the Elijah in verse five refers to John 
the Baptist. 

We have briefly passed in review the prophecies of 
the Old Testament — not by any means all of them, but 
most of them. Their fulfillment affords a ground of 
confidence in the inspiration of the writers. We know 
not how God's Spirit enlightened the prophets, we know 
not how the future was revealed to them, but they were 
in some way assisted to this knowledge. Some were 
written many years before their fulfillment, some were 
fulfilled almost at once, and some are still waiting for the 
time to come. 



400 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Hew ©estame™ I^ophegies. 



HE books of the New Testament do not 
abound in prophecy to as great a degree as 
those of the Old Testament, though one book 
(Revelation) is almost entirely given over to 
prophecy. The prophecies relating to or emanating 
from Christ we will gather from the four gospels, com- 
paring the account given in each, if more than one men- 
tion it. 

Matthew i, 21. This prophecy relates to the birth 
of Christ. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream, tells 
liini nf the child that is to be born and the name to be 
given him. The other narrators make no mention of 
this prediction. In Luke, however, 1 we have a predic- 
tion similar. The angel appears to Mary, and predicts 
the birth and name of the child. How the angel ap- 
peared to Mary we are not informed; it might have been 
in a dream, also. 

Luke ii, 34-35. Simeon's prophetic blessing and 
predictions concerning Jesus. We must explain this in 
a figurative sense. The falling is into a greater degree 
of guilt, and the rising up into a higher spiritual state. 
The sword piercing Mary's soul, perhaps refers to the 
sorrows of the crucifixion. 

Matthew ii, 13. The flight into Egypt. The angel 
again appears unto Joseph in a dream, and warns him 
of the attempt soon to be made on the young child's life. 

*I, 28. 




NEW TESTAMENT PEOPHECIES. 



463 



Matthew xvi, 18-20. The rock on which Christ is 
to build His Church. All know how much importance 
the Catholic Church attaches to this statement. In this 
instance a knowledge of the original language helps us. 
Peter had affirmed of Christ (verse 16): "Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God." Christ accepts this as 
the foundation truth on which he would build His Church. 
He calls this statement "the rock." Christ did not mean 
Peter by the "rock" on which the Church was to stand. 
Had He meant Peter, he would have used a different 
word. The confusion arises from the fact that the Greek 
for rock is petra, sounding like the Greek for Peter. 
According to the laws of Greek grammar, however, had 
Christ meant to designate Peter, he would have said 
petros, instead of petra. 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all contain a very im- 
portant prophecy of Christ in reference to the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ at the end 
of the world. This is contained in the twenty-fourth 
chapter of Matthew, the thirteenth of Mark, and the 
twenty-first of Luke. Jesus, speaking of the temple, 
tells his disciples : " There shall not be left here one 
stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." 1 So 
important a statement roused great interest in His dis- 
ciples, and when alone on Mount Olivet they asked Him 
when that would come to pass, and what sign would pre- 
cede it. In answer, Christ first warns them of tribula- 
tions in store for them, and of deceivers that should rise 
in His name. He also speaks of great natural commo- 
tions, and of political excitements, and of wars and 
rumors of wars ; and the inference is very plain that 
these are not to be regarded as the forerunners. They 

k Matthew xxiv, 2. 



464 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



are but the beginning of sorrows. The statement is also 
made that the gospel will be preached to all nations. 
Perhaps an explanation of this passage is given in Colos*- 
sians, where Paul says the gospel was preached to every 
creature under heaven. 1 

Corning more directly to the queries of His anxious 
disciples, the accounts vary somewhat. Matthew and 
Mark refer to Daniel's prophecy, which we have already 
mentioned.- When this is fulfilled, then is the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem nigh at hand. Luke tells them that 
it would be nigh when Jerusalem was compassed with 
armies, which would, of course, be a fulfillment of the 
prophecy referred to by the others. Then follows a pre- 
diction of the terrible siege of Jerusalem. Then after this 
siege and its lamentable results, the Son of man should 
come, and his approach be heralded by most ominous 
signs in the heavens. Matthew says "immediately'* 
after those days. Neither of the other inspired writers 
understood that it was to be immediately, since they do 
not so express themselves. All scholars will admit that 
the word here translated "immediately" means, also, 
suddenly or forthwith, and, from its position in the original, 
may have reference to the darkening of the sun. In 
other words, the twenty-ninth verse of this chapter in 
Matthew may be read this Avay : "After the tribulation 
of those days shall the sun be suddenly darkened," etc. 
This part is still an unfulfilled prophecy. 

Some may object to this, and say that we arc dis- 
tinctly told that these things should come to pass before 
the generation then living had passed away. 3 In refer- 
ence to that, let us say that we must carefully examine 
the original language to determine its meaning. That is 

1 Colossians i, 23. 2 Daniel ix, 24-27. 3 Matthew xxiv, 34. 



NEW TESTAMENT PEOPHECIES. 



465 



our only source of final appeal ; and we all know how 
liable we are to lose nice shades of meaning in translat- 
ing from one language to another. The word here trans- 
lated "fulfilled" is very rarely so translated. The schol- 
ars who made the new translation never translate it thst 
way; they use "accomplish," or some other word. In 
our old version it is only translated so three times. There 
is no question but that the primary meaning of the word 
is begin to be, and we can see no reason why it could not 
be so used here. Thus, " This generation shall not pass 
till all these things begin to be." This was strictly true. 
This prediction was made A. D. 33. Jerusalem was sur- 
rounded in A. D. 67. Many of that generation were, of 
course, still alive. It was captured August 10, A. D. 70. 

Matthev/ XXV, 31-46. This is an unfulfilled prophecy. 
It relates to the judgment scene. When this shall be, 
we are not informed. The word them, in verse thirty- 
two, does not refer to nations, but to the individuals 
composing the nations. This is quite clearly seen in the 
original. The reason why the one class are blessed and 
the other is not, is that one class had done certain acts of 
kindness to Christ, by doing them to His followers, and 
the others had not done them. This doing acts of good- 
ness is exactly what the word faith means in the Bible — 
faithfulness or love, which is the fulfillment of the 
moral law — the doing what the law demands; this is 
love, and apart from love there is no faith. In the next 
chapter of Matthew (verses 31-35), we have a prediction 
that all the disciples " shall be offended because of me 
this night." A better reading of the original is, that by 
or with me all of the disciples shall be caused to stum- 
ble. We know how this was fulfilled. 

Mark xvi, 17, 15. This is a strong prediction or 



466 



THP] BIBLE COMPANION". 



promise as to what believers in Christ might do and not 
be injured thereby, such as, "If they drink any deadly 
thing, it shall not hurt them." This part of Mark is 
not in the two best manuscripts we have and in some 
others, and is perhaps an addition, and, if so, should not 
be regarded as inspired. Or we may explain it as we 
do a similar passage in Luke. 1 The "power to tread on 
scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy," is to be 
understood in a spiritual sense, where spiritual enemies 
are called serpents and seorpions, and may be trampled 
under the feet of Christ's followers without injury. 

Luke XX, 41-44. Here we have a prediction con- 
cerning the siege of Jerusalem. In the writing of the 
historian Joscphus, we learn how wonderfully was this 
fulfilled by the Romans A. D. 67-70. 

Acts xxvii, 23-31. Paul's shipwreck. We learn 
here also that even where no conditions arc expressed, 
one is often implied. Paul assures the frightened 
sailors that no life should be lost, but that the ship 
would be cast away. Reading a little farther, we see 
this was on condition that the sailors who knew how to 
handle the ship should do their best to bring it to land. 

Romans xi, 23-26. This prediction of Paul's is 
sometimes referred to as proving that all Israel is finally 
to be saved, Some strange theories have been built 
upon this, but notice how plain the condition is — "if they 
continue not in their unbelief." 

1 Corinthians XV. In this chapter is a statement 
respecting the resurrection of the dead, but not much of 
it is in the form of a prediction. But in verses twenty- 
five and twenty-six, we read, "For he must reign till he 
hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that 

» X, 19. 



NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



467 



shall be destroyed is death." 1 To help us to understand this 
statement, we will refer to the third chapter of Second 
Corinthians. The very same word that, in the chapter we 
are considering in First Corinthians, is translated "shall 
be destroyed" in this chapter of Second Corinthians is 
variously translated. In verse seven it is translated "to 
be done away;' 1 '' in verse eleven it is 11 is done away;" in 
verse thirteen it is "is abolished;" in verse fourteen it is 
"is done away" The thing that Paul intended by this 
statement in First Corinthians, is this : " Death, the last 
enemy, is destroyed or rendered inoperative." Christ 
indeed destroyed, death, conquered it, triumphed over it, 
took away the reasons for regarding it as an enemy. 
Death is abolished, so far as it is anything that can harm 
the Christian. 

1 Thessalonians iv, 14-18. Here is a comforting 
prediction concerning the resurrection morn. Those that 
are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in 
no wise precede or have precedence over them that are 
fallen asleep. "The dead in Christ shall rise first," before 
the living are caught up, "then we Avhich are alive and re- 
main shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, 
to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be 
with the Lord." Instead of Christ's coming to reign on 
the earth with the risen saints, He does not even come to 
the surface of the earth, His people are caught up in the 
clouds to meet the Lord in the air. 

2 Thessalonians ii, 3-12. This is a prediction of 
the manifestation of some lawless one, styled the "man 
of sin," "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that 
is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he, as God, 

1 The new verson says, " Shall be abolished." Most scholars think this the 
better translation. 
28 



-108 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



sitteth in the temple of God." This would seem to be a 
religious enemy of the gospel, some power opposed to 
Christianity. Many Protestants think that it predicts the 
rise of the Papacy. It may, however, refer to some per- 
secuting heathen power. Protestants also think the 
statements made in 1 Timothy iv, 1-5, refer to the 
Papacy. It certainly does command celibacy to the 
priests and nuns, and exalts it as an exceedingly honor- 
able thing in all. This text could be applied, however, 
to some modern sects, or it may have referred to some 
of the early sects that have dropped out of history. 

2 Peter ii. This chapter is, in part, a prediction. 
YVe have a dark picture of bad men in the Church. 
Dark as this is painted, it was probably true of some in 
the early Church. The Gnostic teachers soon introduced 
destructive heresies. Bad as the Christian Church now 
is. it is probably purer than it was in the third and 
fourth centuries, and indeed purer than in any time after 
the third until the sixteenth century. 

2 Peter iii, 10, is a prediction, probably, of events 
to take place at the ending of the world. No one knows 
how much of this is figurative language, and how much 
is literal. 

We come now to the Revelation of John. Much of 
this book is prediction. It has occasioned widely diverse 
theories as to what is meant. Some general remarks 
are necessary before we arrive at any understanding at 
all. We must try and learn somewhat of the history of 
the times when the book was probably written, the 
general plan of the book, and the literary taste of the 
age ; and even then there is doubtless much that we need 
not be sure we understand. Let us first try and get an 
outline of the history of the first century of Christianity. 



]S T EW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



469 



The early Christian Church had a marvelous growth 
during the first century of its existence, but was, at the 
same time, exposed to very great persecutions. Its 
greatest enemy, at first, was Judaism. As is well known, 
the Roman Empire was at its zenith of power during the 
time of Christ. The policy of Rome was to tolerate all 
religions, so they did not interfere particularly with the 
Jews. The great body of the Jews were fanatically at- 
tached to the Jewish religion. Its three great divisions, 
the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, however 
much they differed among themselves, were united on 
three points : they were the people peculiarly under God's 
care, Moses was their great prophet, and their ancient 
religion was the only one worthy of consideration. We 
can readily understand Avith what jealous interest they 
watched the spread of Christianity. This religion did 
not indeed denounce the ancient religion, but, neverthe- 
less, should it prevail, the gorgeous ceremonials of Juda- 
ism must give place to the simplicity of Christianity. 

All the forces of Judaism were, therefore, arrayed 
against the infant Church. Wherever there were Jewish 
colonies, and such were widely scattered throughout the 
vast reach of the Roman Empire, there were people 
ready to excite the prejudices of the multitude against 
the Christians. In Judea and Galilee the power of the 
Jewish priesthood w T as very great. The Romans believed 
in quelling insurrections at any cost, and, to appease the 
people, often lent a hand in this persecution. 

In exciting widespread suspicions against the Chris- 
tians, the Jews launched a weapon that speedily recoiled 
on themselves. Were not the Christians at first a Jew- 
ish sect ? Did not the whole Jewish people persistently 
refuse to have anything to do with other religions ? 



470 



THE BIBLE COMPANION'. 



Wore they not willing to lay down their lives rather 
than have the statues of the Roman emperors set up in 
their temple? Other subject nations were willing to 
enroll them among their gods, why should the Jews 
alone refuse? Nay, was it not openly talked among 
them that a great and powerful prince, the long expected 
mcssiah, was to come and lead them to independence, 
and re-establish the ancient kingdom in a glory before 
unknown. It might well he true, thought the heathen, 
that tlit- Christians were a despicable set, and ought to 
be suppressed; but the same reason applied, with added 
force, to the Jewish people themselves. 

In A. D. Gl occurred the memorable conflagration 
of Rome, the larger part of the city being destroyed. 
Whether Nero tired it himself or not can not be known, 
but suspicion fell on the Christians, and a great persecu- 
tion ensued. It was, perhaps, as a result of this that 
Peter and Paul were put to death in Rome; and some 
believe, though not all, that John was banished to Pat- 
mos. It is a question whether the persecution extended 
to the East or not. It is very probable that it did, simply 
because the representatives of the court of Rome, well 
knowing the inclination of the emperor, would also 
address themselves to punish Christians. We have seen 
why such an outbreak would speedily include the whole 
Jewish people. 

The extortions of the Roman procurators of Judea 
speedily became unendurable. " Death to the Romans, 
or ourselves," became the cry of the Jews. A revolt 
ensued ; but there could be but one result of a petty 
province like Judea contending against the power of im- 
perial Rome in her palmy days. The people made a 
most heroic defense. Jerusalem withstood a siege of 



NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



471 



over three years, when it finally was taken by assault, 
A. D. 70. The power of Judaism to persecute the 
Church was thus completely broken. But Rome itself, 
though tolerating all religions, was a heathen power, and 
had but little regard for a religion that condemned all other 
religions, so the Christian Church had still to contend 
with the persecuting power of heathenism. How it 
finally triumphed over this need not be described. 

Considerable depends on the probable date of the 
composition of this book. We have in a former chapter 1 
briefly considered that point, We see no reason to 
change the opinion there expressed. It is certainly 
undeniable that critical study of the book itself favors 
that date. We, therefore, assume that it was written 
about A. D. 68. This was when the persecution of JNTero 
was at its height, and Judaism was tottering to its fall as 
a persecuting power. 

There is another point that we will do well to con- 
sider and constantly bear in mind. The book was writ- 
ten in a style eminently suited for the time and the 
people to whom it was addressed. We are constantly 
in danger of overlooking that point. A person, without 
taking this into consideration, is apt to think there is 
something visionary or enthusiastic about the book of 
Revelation. This style of composition was a very favor- 
ite one among the ethical writers of the first century. 
The number of apocryphal books, written in a similar 
vein, is a striking proof of this. The second book of 
Esdras, of which we have spoken, bears date at this 
time, 2 and in the same chapter we have described still 
others. 3 We could extend the list there given. 

We would not for a moment be understood as teach- 

1 Page 123 2 Page 1 40. 3 Page 155. 



472 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ing that the book of Revelation is to be classed with the 
books there named; but they do serve the purpose of 
showing what was the favorite style of the day. The 
inspired writer designed to make as much of an impres- 
sion on the people he was addressing as possible; nothing- 
is more natural, therefore, than that he would employ 
that style. 

On one point, at least, all interpreters are agreed: the 
burden of the book, written, as it was, during the time 
of great persecution, was to teach the ultimate triumph 
of Christianity over all of its enemies, both Judaism and 
Paganism. The book is essentially a poem, and abounds 
in poetic, symbolic, and figurative language. It is an 
Oriental poem also, written primarily for Oriental peo- 
ple. None the less is it an inspired book, containing 
much prophecy; and as it has been in the past, so will 
it continue to be, a book which will afford much conso- 
lation to Christians in times of persecution. 

We will now address ourselves more particularly to 
the book, and we will frankly acknowledge, to start with, 
that our explanation of its meaning may be simply re- 
garded as one explanation. There are others supported 
by scholars of note. We do not claim to have solved 
every difficulty. If any one has a better way of explain- 
ing the visions let them so apply them. 

The prophetic part of the book properly commences 
in the fourth chapter, and is a vision of a door opened 
in heaven, and a description of some things seen. The fifth 
chapter is a prelude to the first part of the prophecy. 
Previous to the disclosures just about to be made, a book 
sealed with seven seals appears in the hand of him Avho 
sits upon the throne. "The Lion of the tribe of Judah " 
was the only one found worthy to open the book. Christ 



NEW TESTAMENT PEOPHECIES. 



473 



is the Lion and the Lamb. It is not wise to give any 
literal meaning to these two chapters. 

We regard from the end of the fifth to the end of the 
eleventh chapter as a prediction of the triumph of 
Christianity over Judaism. The writer describes in 
highly poetic language the heavenly vision passing be- 
fore him. Ruin was impending over the Jews. The 
wrath of God was about to be visited upon them. We 
have seen in the historic outline how this was accom- 
plished. We are not to suppose these visions give us a 
minute history of the civil wars of the Jews. The whole 
description is poetic. Had the ruin been wrought in any 
other way than it was, the prediction would have been 
just as much fulfilled. Though the language is poetic 
and symbolical, the lesson is none the less clearly taught. 
In the eleventh chapter the writer plainly tells us that he 
is talking about Jerusalem. He predicts its siege. The 
holy city was to be trodden under foot forty and two 
months, equal to three and a-half years. We would not 
advise our readers to seek to explain the visions by his- 
toric events. Look at it as a poem, predicting the fall 
of Jerusalem, and the terrible woes inflicted on the Jews 
before that event. The Church, notice, is to emerge tri- 
umphant, and the shout of victory is heard. " The king- 
doms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
Lord." 1 

Judaism destroyed, the writer addresses himself to 
portray the triumph of Christianity over the persecuting 
power of Rome and heathenism. In this he must be 
more on his guard. It would not do to speak too plainly. 
The Roman magistrates would be only too glad to have 
some excuse for increased severity on their part. Could 

'XI, 15. 



474 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



it be shown that one of their prominent teachers was pre- 
dicting the then reigning emperor's downfall, they would 
feel justified in taking energetic action. The effect of 
this feeling is shown in the writings before us. 

The events that tho inspired writer is about to de- 
scribe are, in their nature, similar to what he has already 
described. His subject was still to foretell the victory 
of Christianity. It would not do, however, to repeat the 
language just written. JNor was it necessary. With all 
the wealth of a highly poetic, Oriental mind, one that 
was thoroughly versed in the sublime strains of Hebrew 
poetry, as employed by the prophets of Old Testament 
times, the Apostle John proceeded to describe the visions 
that passed before him. The twelfth chapter is to be 
regarded as the prelude, the introductory part of the 
second division of this book. We are to regard it as a 
description of the conflict between the forces of good — 
the Church of Grod — and the forces of evil, from the 
earliest times. 

The Church of God is spoken of as a woman. The 
twelve stars have reference to the twelve tribes of the 
Jews. The birth of Christ is mentioned, and His ascent 
to heaven. The persecutions of His Church are referred 
to. The escape of the woman and child into the wilder- 
ness, we understand to be the flight of the members of 
the Christian Church from Jerusalem into the wilder- 
ness, or to Pella, during the siege of Jerusalem. Christ 
had warned the Church to flee from Jerusalem when 
they saw the city " compassed wit»h armies," 1 which advice 
was followed. The power of evil, the enemy of the 
Church during all time, is represented as the great red 
dragon. 

1 Luke xxi, 20-21. 



NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 



475 



The thirteenth chapter deals more particularly with 
the power which this dragon has stirred up to persecute 
the Church. In this chapter it was necessary for the 
apostle to be very circumspect. It would not do to 
speak too plainly of Rome. So imperial Rome is de- 
scribed as a beast rising up out of the sea. The beast is 
described as possessing ten horns and seven heads. The 
apostle himself, in the seventeenth chapter, gives us an 
explanation of this matter. The ten horns, we are told, 
are ten tributary kings with the beast. 1 We are not to 
suppose this was all of the tributary kings of Rome; but 
this was enough to indicate great strength and power. 
The seven heads, we are told, are used in a double sense. 
They refer, first, to the seven hills on which Rome was 
built ; and, next, to seven kings, 2 of which we regard 
Nero as the sixth one. Returning to the thirteenth chap- 
ter again, the apostle refers more particularly to Nero 
again. He was the head (the emperor or king), 
" wounded, as it were, to death." The historical fact is, 
that Nero committed suicide, but it was generally sup- 
posed that he had hidden himself in some obscure corner 
of his empire, and was to appear and resume authority 
again. 

The persecutions of this "head" were to continue 
three years and a half, which, historically, was the ex- 
tent of time they covered. It is well known that the 
Roman emperors were pagans, and they were often de- 
creed divine honors. Their statues were to be wor- 
shiped. John refers to these events. A second beast is 
also spoken of in this chapter. This we consider to 
mean the heathen priesthood and their helpers. Hea- 
thenism was now rousing itself to contend against Chris- 

1 Revelation xvii, 12. 2 Revelation xvii 9, 10. 



47G 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



tianity. It enlisted in its behalf the whole forces of 
imperial Rome. The thirteenth verse of this chapter 
has occasioned a great amount of speculation. Here we 
see with what care the apostle wrote. It would not do 
for him to make too plain a statement, and yet he wished 
to so express himself that he that had wisdom might 
understand him. 

It here necessary to remark that the ancients ex- 
pressed numbers by means of their alphabet. A survival 
of this custom is seen in the use of the Roman letters 
for figures to this day. Thus, for instance, all know 
what these letters express: mdccclxxxvi. In ancient 
times they carried this system still further, as all letters 
had a value, and it was quite a common custom to desig- 
nate a man, not by his name, but by the number ex- 
pressed by the letters used to spell his name. The 
Sibylline Oracles — books composed about this time — 
contain many instances in point. The inspired writer 
deemed this a wise course to pursue. He remarks: 
"Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him 
count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a 
man, and his number is six hundred and sixty and six." 1 

It is proper to remark that some ancient authorities 
read six hundred and sixteen. A great number of names 
have been proposed. It is obviously out of place to 
attempt to settle the question here. We would simply 
remark that excellent scholars have suggested that the 
name was to be written in Hebrew, in order that the 
Roman officials would not be aware of who was meant. 
If this method be used, Nero Csesar (that is, the Em- 
peror Xero) meets all the requirements of the case ; and 
we must note especially the fact that there are two ways 

1 Eevelation xiii, 18 (R. V.). . 



]NTEW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 477 

of spelling this name in Hebrew, one of which gives six 
hundred and sixty-six, and the other six hundred and 
sixteen. Different scholars suggest different names as 
the one meant. We think, in view of all the circum- 
stances of the case, John meant to designate the Em- 
peror Nero. 

John has now fairly introduced the subject of the 
second part of the book, and the next six chapters por- 
tray the downfall of this persecuting power in much the 
same language as was used in describing the downfall of 
Judaism. Differences, of course, occur, but they are just 
such as a skillful writer would employ. We would 
again advise the reader not to attempt to find facts in 
history to illustrate this portion. Read it simply as a 
poetic, Oriental prophecy of the final triumph of Chris- 
tianity over the persecuting power of heathen Rome. 
How greatly this must have cheered the early Chris- 
tians who felt the weight of these persecutions. 

We now approach the third part of the book of Rev- 
elation. With the downfall of the two great opposing 
powers, the rapt apostle foresees in vision a glorious time 
awaiting the Church. But yet all difficulties are not 
removed ; there is still to be a final conflict and a final 
triumph. How shall he express this in words of human 
speech? Shall he again call to his aid the luxuriant 
wealth of Oriental poetry, and portray still another scene 
of God's power? He chooses rather to be very brief in 
this part of his task. In ancient times the prophet Eze- 
kiel, writing on the banks of the river Chebar, repre- 
sents, under the name of Gog and Magog, the Scythian 
host who desolated Syria and Palestine. 1 The author of 
Revelation makes use of the same names to designate 

1 Ezekiel xxxviii and xxxix. 



478 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



the powers or people who were to be objects of the final 
contest. This is briefly mentioned in the twentieth 
chapter. 

All opposition having now been subdued, there re- 
mains much joy in store tor the Christian believers, 
which forms the subject of the last two chapters. They 
have in the past, tin now, and always will contain much 
consolation for Christians in time of trouble. But it 
is imt wise to give much literal meaning to the lan- 
guage. To do this is to mistake the whole import of the 
language used. The one object sought to be conveyed 
in these chapters is that the blessings awaiting the Chris- 
thins arc exceedingly great and glorious. Taking the 
entire book, according to the views given in these pages, 
the prophecies it contains have mostly been fulfilled. 
The tinal contest, however, with Gog and Magog is not 
yet ended. By these we may understand all the ene- 
mies of the Church of Christ, by whatever name they 
may be known. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



481 



Bible Difficulties. 



HE Bible being written for men of all times, 
containing something applicable for all ages, 
the men of any particular time need not be 
sure that they understand all that it contains. 
Doubtless ages ago some parts of it were much better 
understood than they are now, and in time to come 
increasing knowledge will remove many difficulties that 
seem to us to-day very great, The Bible was at first 
written for Oriental people, and it is extremely difficult 
for us to accustom ourselves to their way of thinking; 
and so we need not be too sure that we know the mean- 
ing to be given to all passages. Some passages, to which 
we are trying to give a literal meaning, perhaps they 
understood in a figurative sense. 

Scholars have pondered over some of these difficult 
passages. Some have made them the starting-point 
from whence to attack the whole structure of Christian- 
ity. Some people have dwelt on them, and tried to 
reconcile them with other views, until reason itself has 
tottered on her throne. There is one point that we can 
all rest on in confidence — that is, we may be sure that 
no essential doctrine of Christianity is in doubt. It will 
be found that the points around which the clouds of 
unbelief and doubt and gloom gather are to one side of 
the Christian's journey ; and really it is of little moment 
whether we have clear views of them or not, and we 
may hope some time to rise above the clouds, and look 
down upon what is at present unseen. 




482 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Still it is human to wonder and long for knowledge, 
and this being so, it may not be out of place for us all 
to candidly examine some of the difficult passages. We 
must do it in a spirit of reverence, and in a spirit of 
mutual forbearance; we must candidly admit all clearly 
established positions, and where we come to points that 
our feeble human understanding can not surmount, let 
us simply acknowledge that we can not understand them. 
This is far better than to resort to theory and specula- 
tion. We are all to keep company, and the theory that 
one may form may not be acceptable to all. 

A ship on a voyage takes careful observation to de- 
termine its bearings, and studies well the charts of its 
course. Would we accomplish any difficult object, tm 
must determine clearly what we have to work with ; and 
in the present instance we have to clear up in our own 
minds the ideas or thoughts and conceptions we have 
lorn icd of the Bible, and determine what we have already 
accomplished. We need have no dispute on scientific 
subjects; we have said all that is necessary on that in 
another place. 1 Nor need we stop on the general subject 
of inspiration,? nor infallibility, 3 nor on the nature of 
miracles. 4 We will simply ask the reader to keep the 
conclusions there reached in mind. 

As we must proceed in a systematic way, we will 
take the books of the Bible in their course, and where 
necessary make general observations on the whole book. 

GENESIS. 

Remember, this book was, to some extent, a compila- 
tion. 5 Moses was divinely commissioned to put together 

1 Page 1 58, et seq 2 Page 36, et seq. 3 Page 39, et seq. * Page 199, el seq. 

6 Page 51. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



483 



materials he found already in existence, with such fur- 
ther light as God in His wisdom saw fit to grant unto 
him. This book could not have been written before 
the close of the Egyptian bondage, and how long after 
that date we do not know, but this was a number of cen- 
turies after the great ancestor of the race (Abraham) 
had wandered forth from Ur, of Chaldea. The mass of 
the Hebrews, before this book was written, were, in a 
general way, acquainted with their previous history. 
Moses learned this history from his mother's lips. Even 
though held in bondage, the Hebrews had their tribal 
organization, and could meet together for worship. 1 
They unquestionably held many traditions of the past, 
and probably had manuscripts, though at that early 
time these manuscripts may have been but little more 
than picture records, which oral traditions only could 
explain. 

In all of these traditions and manuscripts, such as 
they were, Moses was doubtless fully informed. JN T ow, 
when subsequently God's Spirit enlightened his under- 
standing, perhaps causing in vision the scenes of creation 
to pass before him, yet would his account be modified 
by all the training of his youth, and by the existence of 
the oral and written material which he was now, by 
divine approval, to arrange in one harmonious whole. 2 
Being written for men of that early day, the book, of 
necessity, partook of the mental peculiarities of the time. 
The Hebrews, before Moses wrote, had, of course, tradi- 
tions of the beginning of things, and of God's dealings 
with their ancestors in far away times. Probably the 
wisest men among them understood they were simply 
stories, and would explain them, when they gave any 

1 Exodus i v, 29-31 . 2 Page 36. 



484 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



explanation at nil, in n figurative way ; for this is nothing 
more than is true to-day among savage or but partially 
developed tribes. They have many fanciful stories — 
very childish, indeed — to explain the present condition 
of things, but they will generally admit they are simply 
.stories. 

Moses now, by divine command, wrote the book of 
Genesis, and knowing that the people delighted in figu- 
rative accounts, with divine approval, he doubtless wrote 
some of the book in a figurative way. Since it was not 
at all necessary for the Hebrews to be instructed in 
natural sciences, God permitted Moses to write in figura- 
tive language. This was doubtless better understood by 
Hebrews of old than it is by us to-day. We are hand- 
ling precious ore, but the metal must be extracted by a 
process of smelting and refining. 

Genesis i. The creation. After these general re* 
I i i rks, we are better aide to understand some passages 
in this book. We have perhaps said all that was neces- 
sary on this chapter in another place. 1 We simply wish 
to repeat, because we deem it important to be kept in 
mind, do not look in this chapter for scientific teachings. 
We may suppose that Moses, in a vision, saw the scenes 
of creation pass before him, and that he described them 
either as they appeared to him, or purposely put his ac- 
count in figurative language; in either event he did not 
write in the language of science. 

Genesis ii, 8-16. The description of the Garden of 
Eden. We know nothing as to where this garden was. 
The names of the rivers afford very little help. Two of 
them only are known. The last two rivers mentioned as 
encompassing it are the Euphrates and the Tigris. The 

1 Page 166, el seq. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



485 



other two rivers are supposed to be either the Nile, the 
Ganges, the Indus, and many others besides. The gen- 
eral supposition is that its location was somewhere in 
Western Asia. Had it been important for man to know, 
it would have been definitely located. As it is, specu- 
lations are useless. 

Genesis ii, 19, 20. Probably but very few of the 
animals are included among those named by Adam. 
These two verses are sometimes referred to as evidence 
of the great knowledge that Adam possessed. How ap- 
propriately he named the animals ! No well-informed 
person should allow himself to make this mistake. We 
do not know what names Adam gave to the animals ; 
we do not even know the language of the Garden of 
Eden. 

Genesis ii, 21-24. The creation of woman. We are 
not to regard this as a historically true account of the 
creation of woman. As a parable, story, or an 

effort to explain the relation of a wife to her husband, it 
is exceedingly instructive and beautiful. To give to the 
language in these verses a literal meaning, is to take 
from it all its beauty, There is no necessity to do this, 
for, previous to this, we are told that God created man 
"male and female ;" here we have the organization of the 
family, the relation of wife to husband ; it is one of the 
shortest but most beautiful parables in the Bible. 

Genesis iii. This chapter is taken up with the temp- 
tation and fall. Here again we think those who seek to 
give a literal meaning to the language are greatly in 
error. We regard this chapter as a parable. To explain 
the great fact of temptation and yielding to it, the fact 
is brought out that men have natural desires through 
which temptations come. The evil spirit was, of course, 

29 



486 



THE BIBLE COM PAX 10 X. 



active in this matter. We do not know in what the sin 
in the Garden of Eden consisted. The consequences of 
this fall are also stated. We are not to assume that 
thorns and thistles did not grow on the earth before this 
fall. Nor are we to suppose that natural death entered 
the world in consequence of this sin. The reason why 
man should die a natural death is stated in verse nine- 
toon : "For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
return." But he did die a moral death. 1 We need not 
be sure that we understand all that is said in this 
chapter. 

Genesis iv. The murder of Abel by Cain. At first 
readingj wo can hardly see why Cain's offering was not 
acceptable However, there is a verse in Hcbrcws'-' 
which tells us that Abel offered by faith and Cain did 
n<»t. As by faith includes obedience, we conclude that 
Cain failed in performing some known duty. Some have 
supposed ho should have made some animal offering; 
this is not clear, since there were acceptable offerings 
besides slaughtered animals. In verses six and seven of 
this chapter, arguments are presented to Cain to induce 
him to spare his brother. How God presented these 
arguments to Cain, we do not know. It might have 
been through his conscience. We have referred, on a 
former page, to verses in this chapter as tending to prove 
the previous existence of other races of men. 3 

Genesis v. This chapter is almost wholly taken up 
with chronology. It is freely admitted by all Bible 
scholars that this chronology is of very little help in 
fixing the time from Adam to the flood. The time is 
different in the Septuagint translation, also in the Sa- 
maritan Pentateuch. No one knows how many gener- 

1 See page 188, el seo. 2 Hebrews xi, 4. 4 Page 178, et seq. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



487 



ations are omitted. Matthew, in giving the chronology 
between David and Christ, omits several generations, as 
we know by comparing his table with Old Testament 
passages, and with that given by Luke. But if, at the 
time of Matthew, it was not deemed necessary to be 
particular in this matter, with much more reason may 
we conclude that Moses did not deem it essential. 
Furthermore, it is now well known that the word son 
in the Bible does not always mean what our word son 
does. In the state of society in which they lived, any 
male descendant, no matter how remote, is properly 
called a son, whereas it may be he was but a grand- 
son or great-grandson. 

There is another difficulty that comes up in connec- 
tion with this chapter ; that is, the great ages to which 
some of the people then lived. No doubt, many sincere 
Christians have wondered if there could be an error 
here, or if there were any way of explaining such re- 
markable longevity. If no satisfactory explanation can 
be given it is best to simply accept these statements, 
and not profess to understand much about them. There 
is one fact about this matter which, perhaps, contains 
the germs of truth. We have every reason for believing 
that the authors of the Septuagint translation were de- 
vout Jews, and had manuscripts, since lost, to aid them. 
For some reason or other, when they translated this 
chapter, they made some changes. In looking over this 
chapter, you will notice that most of the patriarchs were 
what we would call old men before they had their first 
son. In every case, where they were not considerably 
over one hundred years old, the Septuagint adds on one 
.hundred years. 

For instance, our translation reads that Seth begat 



488 



THE IH RLE COMPANION. 



Enos when he was one hundred and five years old — 
the Septuagint reads two hundred and five; and so of 
all the others, unless they were considerably over one 
hundred years, as, for instance, Jared was, in which case 
the age is not changed. Now, what was the reason of 
this? The Septuagint translators thought they had 
good reason for making this change. It has occurred to 

8 e that possibly the word year here does not mean 

twelve months. One of the meanings of the Hebrew 
word, rendered yen-, is repetition, the coming round again 
to the same time. 1 Now, it is admitted that in rude 
states of society men are more inclined to reckon by 
moons than by years. In an Oriental land, like Asia, 
they would take note of months a great deal sooner than 
they would of years. Now, if we suppose that the year, 
in this chapter, should be month, or moon, we can ex- 
plain at once the extreme longevity, and the probable 
reason why the Septuagint translators added on one hun- 
dred years to the age already given before the birth of 
the first son. 

It will be found, for instance, by making this substi- 
tution, that they all lived from sixty to ninety years of 
age, and, taking the Septuagint, had their first son when 
from eighteen to twenty-five years old. Now, all this is 
thrown out simply as a suggestion. No one has the 
right to deny the facts are as stated. No one has the 
right to say such an explanation is opposed to the Bible, 
for it is not. Nor, on the other hand, has any one the 
right to say this is the explanation of the great ages 
We do not know enough to make such an affirmation 
If any one sees fit to accept it, we know of nothing i 
the Bible to prove him wrong. Should, on the contrary 

1 see Gesenius on '' Shanah." 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



489 



the readers still prefer to believe that the patriarchs 
lived to the great age assigned them, it can not be shown 
they are in error. Let every one be satisfied in his own 
mind. The Bible does not depend for its truth or falsity 
on any such question as this. 

Genesis vi, 1-4. This account of the sons of God 
and the daughters of men, and the children of such 
union, is probably much like the mythology of Greece 
and Rome, wherein mention is made of some who were 
the children of gods and women. As the writers describe 
things as they seemed to be, it was natural, in account- 
ing for some remarkable persons, to assume that their 
fathers were sons of God, meaning thereby angels, who 
are sometimes so mentioned. It was probably assumed, 
in common thought, that the fathers of some persons 
were more exalted than men. Their greatness was so 
conspicuous that this was the easiest way to account for _ 
it. Statements similar to this are common in the book 
of Enoch. 1 

Genesis vi, vii, viii. The deluge. The account con- 
tained in these chapters is very important, and has, on 
its face, some difficulties. We have so thoroughly con- 
sidered them in a separate chapter that we will only 
refer the reader to it. 2 We are not to understand that 
the rainbow was now seen for the first time by Noah, 
but that it was then made the sign of God's covenant. 

Genesis x. This chapter gives us a table of the de- 
scendants of Noah. We wish to present a few thoughts 
on the entire chapter. We must constantly bear in 
mind that the object of the writers of the Bible was not 
to teach science or history. Historical and ethnological 
questions are of minor importance by the side of the 

1 Page 155. * Page 204, et seq. 



490 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



great question of the relations of man to his Creator. 
We are not to unite with this chapter the conclusions of 
some of our scholars, and then contend they are the 
Bible views. In other words, you can not make this 
chapter the basis of any satisfactory treatise on the 
origin of the nations of antiquity. In early times it 
was thought that the descendants of Ham settled in 
Africa. Shorn in Asia, and Japheth in Europe. 

Especially did commentators labor to show that Ham 
was a black man, and his descendants negroes. All such 
interpretations are now given up. There has been a 
supposed necessity of finding in this chapter the origin 
of all the nations and races of men on the earth. If 
the views we have stated in regard to the extent of the 
deluge be correct, 1 and still more, if it be admitted that, 
strictly speaking, Adam was not the first created man, 
and we have given our reasons for supposing the Bible 
silent on that point, 2 then this necessity vanishes. You 
may believe all the statements made in this chapter, but 
be careful and not mix with them any theoretical spec- 
ulations about the origin of nations and people. This 
question is still open for science to solve. 

Genesis xi, 1-10. The confusion of tongues. We 
think this should be regarded as a parable to explain the 
diverse languages that exist. There may, of course, be 
some historic foundation for it. If the vieAv that the 
flood was but partial in extent be correct, then some of 
the languages were different before this tower was built. 
It is best not to call this history. "We know that lan- 
guage is subject to constant change. Scholars begin to 
think they understand something of the laws governing 
such changes. If you will read the account carefully 

1 Page 208, et seq. 2 Page 176, et seq. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



491 



you will notice there is nothing said as to the time taken 
to bring about this confusion. 

Genesis xi, 32. The age of Terah. We speak of this 
because it is an instance of manifest error. The facts 
are these : Terah is said to have been seventy years old 
Avhen Abraham was born. 1 Abraham migrated from Haran 
when he was seventy-five years old. 2 This would make 
his father, Terah, about one hundred and forty-five years 
old. But we are told, in another part of the Bible, that 
Abraham did not leave Haran until after his father's 
death. 3 But .this verse says, "All the days of Terah 
were two hundred and five years." There is, of course, 
a mistake somewhere. It is, doubtless, an error of copy- 
ist. No one feels his confidence in the Bible shaken by 
such little errors as this. 4 

Genesis xii to xxv, 10. Abraham's life. There are 
some things stated about this patriarch that are certainly 
very remarkable. Perhaps we can consider them better 
now than later. We are struck with the fact that he 
was greatly favored with communications from God. 
How these were given we are not told. Some of them 
might simply have been strong convictions. Some were 
given in visions. We may accept the fact that the com- 
munications were given without speculation as to how 
they were given. Where the Lord is represented as 
speaking unto Abraham, we are not to assume that it 
was necessarily in an audible voice. 

In Genesis xii, and also xx, Abraham is represented 
as denying that Sarah was his wife. We may be 
very sure there was some reason for such action not 
clearly explained here. 5 It is difficult for us to under- 



1 Genesis xi, 26. Genesis xii 4. 3 Acts vii, 4. 4 See page 39. 

b Page % 8. 



492 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



stand the customs of those far away times. Whv 
Pharaoh should have been punished for his part of the 
transaction, 1 is not very clear. The fault Mas with Abra- 
ham. Pharaoh doubtless observed the customs <>f his 
Country. The custom being wrong in itself, is perhaps 
the reason why God punished him, and not particularly 
because it was Sarah. 

Considerable mention is made of the faith of Abra- 
ham. Now, as faith always includes the idea of obedi- 
ence, it is but another way of telling us that he always 
sought to do his duty, was always willing to do 
God's commands. In chapter xxii is recorded the 
wonderful trial of that faith, the command to sacra 
tier his son Isaac. Some take strong ground on this 
chapter, and ask whether Abraham would have been 
justified in ottering up Isaac. We must not make im- 
aginary difficulties. Had Abraham offered Isaac in sacra 
tici'. \\e might have difficulty in reconciling this state- 
ment with our ideas of justice. At that early age, men 
thought human sacrifices were justifiable. God may have 
had a double purpose in view: a trial of Abraham's 
faith, and to show him that human sacrifices were 
not what he required, or was pleased with. Verse 
eighteen of this chapter is very important as giving a 
true idea of faith, "because thou hast obeyed my voice." 

Chapter xvii tells us of the adoption of the rite of 
circumcision. We must not make the mistake of sup- 
posing that in itself this was an important act, or a 
meritorious one. It served, however, the purpose of 
separating the Jews from the surrounding nations. 

Genesis xviii. Abraham's angelic visitors. There is 
much in this chapter that we do not know how to explain 

1 Genesis xii, 17. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



493 



unless Ave give to it a figurative meaning. We can 
not, of course, suppose that an Omniscient God was on 
H's way to Sodom to see if the reports He had heard were 
true or not (verses 20, 21). This is a contradiction in 
terms. We must give these verses a figurative mean- 
ing. Perhaps we are to understand the whole chapter in 
this way. The last part of this chapter is taken up with 
Abraham's intercession for the doomed cities. Some 
have said that, if Abraham had had faith enough, 
he might have asked the Lord to have spared the city 
if there were one righteous man found in it. The Lord 
did not give him this faith. Men can not offer the 
prayer of faith at their own option; only when the Lord 
gives them permission to offer the prayer of faith can 
they do so. 

Genesis xix. The overthrow of the cities. This was 
doubtless by volcanic action. We are not authorized to 
assume that it was a miracle. Many miraculous inci- 
dents accompanied it, but the calamity itself seems to 
have been wrought by natural means. 

We well know there are not wanting those who 
would interpret these two chapters as being simply a 
parable. A sudden calamity, say they, overtook these 
rich, doubtless wicked, cities of the plain. In ancient 
times, every such event was thought to be wrought by 
the direct will of God. They had not risen to the grand 
conception of His performing His wonderful work by 
means of self-acting laws. An attempt would therefore 
be made to explain this sudden destruction, and so this 
parable arose. Possibly this is the fact. 

It is, of course, not unreasonable to suppose that be- 
fore Genesis was written the Hebrews had a tradition of 
this overthrow, and a story to account for it. We know 



494 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



how, in the course of centuries, such stories would form 
crystallize around such remarkable events. Moses, 
in fulfillment of his God-given mission, had to deal with 
this story of the overthrow. His mind, all-illuminated 
by divine help, may have thought it best to simply teach 
that God's power accomplished this destruction, and leave 
the account clothed in figurative language, which would 
be readily understood by his immediate readers. As for 
ourselves, we would not attempt to decide. We are v&m 
sure, however, that the great value of the Bible is in no 
wise concerned with the question whether the incidents 
connected with this destruction be history or parable. 

Genesis xxii, 24-32. The account of Jacob's wrestling 
with the angel. A great many questions have been 
raised in regard to this account. Some have supposed it 
to represent simply a night of earnest and protracted 
prayer. There is no hint in the language, however, to 
authorize this view. 

EXODUS. 

There are a great many miracles mentioned in this 
book. We have the burning, yet unconsumed, bush in 
which the Lord appeared unto Moses ; and then the series 
of wonderful events associated with the exodus of the 
Hebrews from Egypt: Aaron's rod, which became a ser- 
pent ; the numerous severe plagues which were visited 
upon the Egyptians before that rebellious people would 
consent to let the children of Israel go free ; the pillar 
cloud of smoke by day, of fire by night, which guided 
the Israelites on their way ; the passage of the Red 
Sea ; the destruction of Pharaoh's army by the returning 
waters ; the rock from whence flowed the cooling 
streams which refreshed the Israelites ; the manna and 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



495 



quails which satisfied their wants ; and the many and re- 
markable communions between Moses and God. 

We live in a day of keen intellectual research. We 
are given to scrutinizing every statement made, and to 
this rule the accounts given in Holy Writ form no ex- 
ception. This can not well be prevented, and friends of 
the Bible should be willing to accept the situation, and 
frankly state their position in regard to this series of 
miracles. We are so constituted that probably no two 
see things in just the same light, and perhaps the points 
of agreement on which we can all stand in these state- 
ments are very few. 

In a former chapter 1 we have presented some thoughts 
on miracles in general. We have seen how greatly in 
error is the commonly understood definition of a miracle. 
Now, certain remarkable events are described in the 
book of Exodus. No one is prepared to tell us how they 
were brought about. No one has the right to say they 
were wrought by the violation or suspension of natural 
laws, simply because they know nothing about it. They 
may every one have been wrought by natural laws, as 
far as we know. We need have no particular theory 
about them. It is nothing against us to believe certain 
statements as facts, when we can not understand them. 
Practically, we do this every day of our lives. If any 
one thinks he can explain these statements, let us listen 
to his explanation; we are not bound to accept it. 

There is a certain class of scholars who seek to ex- 
plain everything in accordance with well-known natural 
laws, giving to the language more or less of the nature 
of parables. As an illustration of this method, take the 
passage of the Red Sea. We have every reason to sup- 

1 Page 195, et seq. 



4!Mj 



THE BIBLE COM TANION. 



pose that the configuration of the coast, especially at the 
head of the Gulf of >Suez, was somewhat ditferent from 
what it is now. We know that such outlines sometime^ 
greatly modify tidal waves. We know, further, that in 
some places tidal waves of extraordinary height come 
rolling in very swiftly. It has been suggested that the 
Hebrews crossed when the tide was at low ebb, while the 
Egyptians following after were overtaken by the flood- 
tide wave. Now, there is nothing in the Bible that 
would forbid us to adopt such a conclusion, but we have 
no means of knowing one way or the other about it. 

In most of the descriptions of these events there is 
nothing that gives us the right to understand that a 
parable is meant. The style is simple and historical; 
and furthermore, there are but few of them that admit 
pf any very easy natural explanations, as did the exam- 
ple just cited. It can be done by giving a somewhat 
violent twist to the language, as, for instance, to say the 
cloud-pillar by day and lire-column by night-were simply 
the dust and smoke of their day-camp and the camp- 
fires of night. Still, it seems to us, with our present 
knowledge, that it is not best to seek to explain every- 
thing in this manner. We had better rest on the sim- 
ple fact that they are miracles ; that no one knows how 
God wrought them ; and that our present duty is simply 
to accept them, and trust that in time more light will 
break in upon us. 

This position must be taken, however, with the dis- 
tinct understanding that it is by no means irreverent to 
seek to explain them by natural means. We must not 
lose sight of the fact, admitted by all scholars, that the 
books of the Bible, of necessity, partake of the literary 
character, habits of thought, and modes of speech of the 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



497 



times and people among whom they were written; and 
unless one is sure that he can throw himself completely 
into the habits of these Hebrews fifteen centuries before 
Christ — an Oriental people, accustomed to Oriential ex- 
pression, just escaping from long-continued oppression, 
and possessed of the crudest ideas about God — a people 
who were with difficulty prevented from relapsing into 
paganism, which is prima facie evidence that they had 
very pagan ideas about God ; unless a person can do all 
this, he should never be sure he understands just what 
the writer of this book has described in the language of 
miracles. 

Exodus iv, 24-26. After this somewhat general in- 
troduction and discussion, there remain but few passages 
to further consider. 'In these verses we have a strange 
statement. The Lord sought to kill Moses. Manifestly 
it will not do to understand this literally. Perhaps the 
great value of this passage is a hint how to understand 
much of this book. Probably Moses was very sick, and 
his wife and others thought, in full keeping with their 
crude ideas, that the angel of the Lord really sought to 
kill him. And Zipporah thought she understood why 
the Lord was angry ; she had neglected to circumcise 
her son — perhaps she had withstood Moses' wishes in 
this matter. She now made haste to perform this neg- 
lected duty. It is evident that this transaction is de- 
scribed just as it appeared to them, and in keeping with 
their ideas. The question is, Are there other portions 
of this book to be explained the same way ? Either at 
this time or a little later Zipporah went back to her 
father, and waited until Moses returned from Egypt, 
conducting the Hebrews to Palestine. 1 



1 Exodus xviii, 1-5. 



498 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



Exodus vii, 3. " And I will harden Pharaoh's heart." 
Much was formerly made of this passage, but more cor- 
rect views have prevailed of late years. It is generally 
conceded that the heart is the Bible word for will, or 
the purpose of the will. This is free, and can not be 
hardened without the guilty agency of him whose heart 
is hardened. It is repugnant to our sense of justice to 
believe God punished Pharaoh for having a hard heart, 
if God Himself hardened it. The simple fact is, no one 
can resist or put off doing what they well know to be a 
duty without being a worse man for it. So Pharaoh 
resisted a known duty, and hardened his own heart. 1 
This passage affords us another instance of how prone 
the narrator was to ascribe everything directlv to God. 
EveD with the light of inspiration, describing events that 
took place before his very eyes, he could not sufficiently 
free himself from this habit of thought. 

Exodus xx, 1-17. The commandments. Important 
as these commandments are, there is no difficulty in un- 
derstanding them, unless it be in that clause of the sec- 
ond commandment where it speaks of visiting the iniqui- 
ties of the fathers upon the children. We are not to 
understand this to mean that God holds children guilty 
of what their parents do. This would be to make it con- 
flict with other texts, and with our own innate ideas of 
justice. But natural consequences do follow the iniqui- 
ties of the parent. The children may inherit diseased 
bodies, stunted minds, or perverted moral natures, or 
they may be overwhelmed with shame and sorrow by the 
wicked acts of their parents. In this sense, it is sadly 
true that the iniquities of the parents are visited upon 
the children. 

1 Exodus viii, 15, 3i. and ix, 34. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 
LEVITICUS. 



499 



It will be noticed that a large part of Exodus is taken 
up with the law, and about all of Leviticus is devoted to 
the same object. These constitute the oldest known code 
of laws. They purport to have been given by God to 
Moses. We notice that by far the larger part of these 
laws have reference simply to worship. The difficulties 
we feel about them are not confined to detached passages 
here and there. They lie deeper than that. All earnest 
minds, who have pondered over them, have experienced 
certain doubts about them, because they are not what 
we would expect with our present light, at least, to be 
such laws as would be promulgated with divine sanc- 
tion. It must be admitted, for instance, that much of 
the ritual and ceremonial parts of the law betray a wor- 
ship fitted for rude, partially civilized people, a peo- 
ple, moreover, who had but very crude notions about 
God. One need read no further than the first chapter of 
Leviticus to see how true this statement is. 

The simple facts of the case are, they were the laws 
suited for a rude and partially civilized people. They 
were not intended for our clay, nor for the Jews in the 
time of Christ. All through the New Testament are pas- 
sages showing with how little regard the mere ceremonial 
parts of this law were held. Christ, speaking of a part 
of these laws, tells the Hebrews they were given because 
of the hardness of their hearts. 1 We may extend this 
remark to all the ritual. We are in constant danger of 
forgetting the rude state of civilization among the He- 
brews at the time of the exodus. 

They were yet in a tribal state of society, in the cult- 

' Matthew xix, 8. 



f>< 10 



THE 13II5LK COMTAXIOX. 



lire of the early Iron Ago, when iron was vet a precious 
metal. Xow, reflect, that tlir mass of the people were 
rude, uncivilized, and ignorant. They had languished in 
a pitiful state of slavery for some centuries. It is 
abundantly shown in their subsequent history that they 
had no just ideas of God and religion. They were con- 
tinually relapsing into idolatry. With the wonderful 
manifestations of God in their behalf still fresh in their 
memory; nay, while Sinai yet reverberated with the 
thunders of God's presence, they proceeded to make 
themselves other gods and worship them. Five hun- 
dred years of confusion, and turmoil, and strife — years 
of slow advance toward a yet distant civilization — lay 
between them and the establishment of a monarchy. 

Neither are we to understand that the Hebrews, be- 
fore this event, were destitute of these laws and rituals; 
or, in other words, that Moses Avas now giving utterance 
to what the Hebrews had not before thought of. All we 
need suppose about it is, that Moses, with divine ap- 
proval, arranged in order, codified, put down for refer- 
ence, a code of laws with which they were largely familiar; 
for the civil and criminal parts of this code embrace 
those rules of action that men have everywhere recog- 
nized. And you will observe that the ritual part of this 
was by no means new. Cain and Abel were offering 
sacrifices to the Lord. Cain was advised, if he had not 
done well, to make a sin-offering. 1 TThen Noah came 
out of the ark he made a burnt-offering unto the Lord. 

And, furthermore, all have observed how natural it 
is for men, while yet in a rude state of society, to offer 
sacrifices and burnt-offerings to their gods. The great 
mass of the Hebrews before the time of Moses formed 

1 This is the correct meaning of Genesis vi, 7. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



501 



no exception to this rule. You may say that Moses- 
gave to all these sacrifices a typical meaning. Admitted, 
but we are not forbidden to suppose God would gladly 
have given them some other form of typical worship had 
they only been prepared to receive it. They were not 
prepared for a spiritual worship. They were prepared 
by all the traditions of the past to understand the 
gorgeous ceremonial of the Mosaic ritual, abounding in 
offerings and sacrifices of all kinds. 

Laws are simply expressions in language of rules of 
action. They grow out of the customs and needs of the 
people. Moses, assisted by God's Spirit, doubtless added 
to, changed, and modified these laws, and arranged them 
in order; but we must observe that he was largely 
working on pre-existing material, and on laws that were 
well suited for a people in their state of development. 
It was, doubtless, the best that could be given them. 
God took those partially civilized people, and working 
through His servant, Moses, gave them such laws as 
were best suited for them, and a ritual worship only 
fitted for their state of enlightenment, which ritual, how- 
ever, served as a tutor to bring them, in course of time, to 
a better knowledge. 1 We are to notice, also, that the ritual 
of a worship is one thing, the doctrines taught another. 
The civil, criminal, and ritual laws may partake of the 
nature of the people to whom they were addressed, and 
may vary with their civilization. But the doctrines 
taught about God should be the same in the Old as in 
the New Testament; the same yesterday, to-day, and 
forever. When you consider this point all doubts about 
these laws vanish. 

1 Galatians iii, 24. 
30 



502 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 
NUMBERS. 



Numbers i. This book opens with an account of the 
taking of the census. Some writers represent the number 
of the Hebrews as being nearly three millions of people 
a1 the time of the exodus. In our opinion, this is an 

exaggeration. 

This census, on the face of it, seems to be only of those 
men twenty years old and upward, able to go to war. 
This number is said to he six hundred and three thou- 
sand five hundred and fifty (verse 46). From several 
circumstances, we are not sure that this was the number 
of only able-bodied soldiers. In Exodus xxxviii, 26, this 
same number is given as the number of men twenty 
years old and upward, without any question whether they 
were able to go to war or not. In Numbers ii, 32, this 
same number appears again as the number of all who 
were included in the census. In Exodus xii, 37, the 
number of the Hebrews is given as about six hundred 
thousand men, besides children. Nothing is said about 
the number of women in any of these cases. But it may 
be quite fairly urged that this last number includes 
women as well as men, simply because men, as a general 
term, includes both men and women, and nothing is said 
about women, and if they were to be excluded, as the 
children were, mention ought to have been made of it. 

Numbers xii, 1. The seditious murmuring of Aaron 
and Miriam. This is the first mention of Moses being 
married to an Ethiopian woman. We know neither why 
it caused offense, nor who she was. It does not mean 
Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, for she was a Midian- 
ite, and her people lived in Arabia, and the inhabitants 
of these countries are never called Ethiopians or Cush- 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



505 



ites in the Bible. 1 Josephus, the historian, relates a 
tradition among the Jews to the effect that, before Moses 
fled to Midian, he commanded an army against the 
Ethiopians (by which we understand what is now the 
Soudan), and married the daughter of the king of that 
country. 

Numbers xii, 6. This verse is very important, be- 
cause it shows us how the Lord manifested Himself to 
prophets. In many of the prophetic books, the formula 
is frequent, "And the Lord said unto me." Here we 
learn that the Lord would appear unto a prophet in 
a vision and speak to him in dreams. Perhaps the 
greater number of communications from the Lord to the 
prophets of old were imparted in this way. 

Numbers xvi. The rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and 
Abiram. There is only one point that we need consider. 
This destruction, we notice, included the wives, children, 
and little ones. This is a case, then, of where evil comes 
on the innocent from their connection with the guilty. 
It certainly seems strange that God should punish the 
innocent with the guilty. 

Numbers xvii. The budding of Aaron's rod. This 
was a miraculous act, and, of course, no explanation can 
be given for it. The design of the miracle is plain. It 
was but natural that the other families should be envious 
of the honors bestowed on the family of Aaron. This 
miracle, of course, put an end to this matter. 

Numbers xxii, xxiii, and xxiv. Balaam's prophecy. 
These chapters give us the account of a remarkable man. 
He was not a Jew, but yet was a prophet, and God com- 
municated to him His will. The narrative is told in a 
very interesting way. Three times, after sacrifical offer- 

1 See Gesenius on "Cush," and Young on ' Ethiopia." 



506 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ings, 1 did Balaam assay to speak a curse against Israel, 
and cadi time it turned to a blessing on his lips. Shall 
Ave conclude that he was a veritable prophet, to whom 
Grod reVealed future events? We must hesitate before 
accepting this view. The messengers who went to eail 
him took with them the "rewards of divination." We 
should sooner say he was one of those who practiced the 
rites of divination, and pretended, by these means, to 
foretell future events. But on this occasion God over- 
ruled his actions to the advance of His own glory. It 
is a somewhat parallel case with the witch of Endor. 
We do not believe this woman, by the practice of her 
arts, could call back the spirits of the departed, though 
her fame in this respect had spread abroad. Yet, on the 
occasion of Saul's visit, her pretended powers in this di- 
rection wore overruled by God to further his object. We 
would suggest a somewhat similar explanation be given 
to Balaam's prophecies. 

Numbers xxxi, 17, 18. Moses' directions about the 
treatment of the Midianites. This passage has been 
made the occasion of severe charges against Moses, and, 
by implication, against God, who is supposed to have 
approved of the same. But what evidence have we that 
God approved of the act? It is nowhere so stated. 
Furthermore, it is in direct violation of the Mosaic law. 2 
It is violation of that innate sense of justice God has 
implanted in the breasts of all. We can not excuse or 
palliate such a barbarous act as was here committed. 

This account is a striking proof that the Hebrews, at 
this time, were in a very imperfect stage of civilization. 

1 Notice, a heathen people are offering sacrifices in much the same way the 
Hebrews did. This but emphasizes how true it was that the Mosaic ritual was 
largely founded on pre-existing customs. 

2 Deuteronomy xxiv, 16. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



507 



This act was in full keeping with what we might expect 
of a people in their state of life. No doubt this seemed 
to them an honorable act of warfare ; so it would to-day 
to savage, semi-civilized men. . We are not to suppose 
that God approved of every act of Moses ; with all his 
learning, he partook of the imperfection of his time. 

DEUTERONOMY. 

It has already been stated that this book is mainly a 
rehearsal of the law. But Moses, in rehearsing the law, 
gives certain directions in regard to their conduct when 
they had once fairly invaded Canaan, which we find it 
difficult to reconcile with our ideas of justice. The 
Hebrews were an invading host ; they were about to 
seize the land of Canaan and drive out its inhabitants. 
In the first place, what right had they to do this ? 

Our forefathers dispossessed the Indians of this coun- 
try. It was a beautiful land, and dear to the Indian 
heart; but the whites were the stronger, and the land be- 
came ours. In our case, we plead the claims of a higher 
civilization, and the ability to make a better use of the 
land. A similar claim is put forth in Deuteronomy in 
favor of the Jews, for this is what the language in the 
first seven verses of chapter nine amounts to. However 
bad the Jews were, they were better than the tribes in 
possession of Canaan. From this distance in time, and 
the meagerness, rather the absence, of all history, we 
have no independent means of verifying this statement, 
but it may, with equal reason, be said that we can not 
disprove it. 

But in carrying out this purpose directions are given 
by Moses which certainly seem to us to be unnecessarily 
cruel. In the seventh chapter he enumerates the nations 



508 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



then living in Palestine, and advises the Israelites "to 
smite them and utterly destroy them" (verse 2); and in 
a little while he repeats this : " Thou shalt consume all 
the people; . . . thine eye shall have no pity upon 
them " (verse 16). Moses undoubtedly thought this was 
the best course to pursue, as witness his treatment of 
the tribes on the east of Jordan. 1 At the present day 
we could not justify such advice. 

The trouble is, we do not sufficiently consider the low 
state of development of the Hebrews. Such conduct as 
this is suited only for rude people in rude times. Even 
Moses, near the close of his long and wonderful life, was 
so much in sympathy with this feeling that he had no 
better advice to give them than this. We are not to sup- 
pose, however, that God approved of such measures, ex- 
cept that the rudeness of the times might justify it. We 
may readily suppose that he would gladly have had 
Moses advise the people differently, but the people Avere 
not prepared for it. 

Deuteronomy xx. The priest's exhortation to battle. 
You will notice in the course of this chapter some fur- 
ther directions, that, with our present light, we could 
not justify. The same explanation is at hand as in the 
previous case. Such conduct is just what we would ex- 
pect from a people but partially developed. Tribes, in 
such a state of society as they were, delight in Avar and 
conquest. If those on whom they descend submit, trib- 
ute only is imposed ; if not, savage scenes of carnage 
ensue. We are not to condemn Moses, for he was, 
doubtless, in advance of the majority of his nation. Nor 
do Ave suppose this met the approval of God. He bore 
with this people ; He did the best that could be done for 

1 Numbers xxi. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



509 



them, and was gradually lifting them to a higher plane 
of thought and feeling. 

Deuteronomy xxiv. This chapter, containing the ac- 
count of Moses' death, was, of course, written by some 
other hand than his, but by whom we do not know. 

JOSHUA. 

In the book of Joshua there are three very important 
miracles mentioned — the drying up of the waters of 
Jordan, the falling down of the walls of Jericho, and the 
lengthening day at Joshua's command. We have said 
sufficient on the general subject of miracles. In our 
opinion, all attempts to explain miracles are useless ; but 
in regard to the command to the sun and moon to stay 
their course, we notice reference is made to the book of 
Jasher. 1 Now, this is supposed to be a collection of 
songs. It would almost seem as if the writer of Joshua 
did not mention this miracle as something he cared par- 
ticularly to vouch for, but simply remarks that it is so 
stated in the book of Jasher. 

Joshua ii. Rahab, the harlot. After the fall of Jeri- 
cho, this woman lived among the Jews for a long while. 2 
We may suppose that she changed her habits of life, and 
became a good woman. Shall we now commend her for 
this act of treachery to her own countrymen? We see 
nothing commendable about it. We see it only as a 
shrewd act. She was convinced the Jews would be suc- 
cessful, and so she sought to save her own life. She 
had faith in their success, 3 and took successful measures 
to save herself. 

Joshua vii, 24, 25. The stoning of Achan. In this 
instance we need have no hesitation in saying that God 

'Page 149. 2 Joshua vi, 25. 3 Hebrews xi, 31. 



510 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



could not have approved including in this severe sen- 
tence the sons and daughters of Achan. It is in direct 
violation of the law: "Neither shall the children be put 
to death for the fathers." 1 The account is but another 
proof of the rudeness of the times. The ignorance of the 
people is also shown in that they put to death the beasts 
of burden of Achan as well. No enlightened people 
commit such acts as these. 

Joshua x. 32, 33, 37. Here Joshua is represented as 
very literally following Moses' command, to which we 
have referred. As a matter of fact, we know the de- 
struction was not near as complete as we would suppose. 
The language must be taken with some allowance. For 
instance. Hebron is mentioned as totally destroyed and 
all the inhabitants massacred (verse 37), yet a little later 
we find the tribe of Judah again warring with the inhab- 
itants there. 2 

JUDGES. 

Judges i, 6. The cutting off the thumbs and toes of 
Adoni-bezek. This act of cruelty is fully in keeping 
with the state of development of the Jew r s. We have no 
evidence that God approved of it. 

Judges viii, 27. We can not understand this act of 
Gideon. After all the evidence he had of God's power, 
and after being shown so many proofs of divine favor, 
he makes a golden ephod (a priestly garment), and sets 
it up as an object of worship. In fact, during all the 
long course of time covered by the book of Judges, the 
people were almost continually lapsing into idolatry. It 
is a signal proof of how far the great mass of the people 
were from a true idea of God and religion. 

1 Deuteronomy xxiv, 16. 2 Judges i, 10. See, also, page 231. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



511 



Judges xi, 31. Jephthah's vow. We may, of course, 
say that this offering to the Lord did not mean to take 
her life, as a slaughtered being, but it was devoting her 
to an unmarried life. The thirty-ninth verse may imply 
this, yet this is not the usual meaning of the words em- 
ployed. If she was really offered as a burnt-offering, we 
can only wonder that this judge in Israel did not know 
such a sacrifice was not pleasing to God. 

Judges xiii to xiv, 31. The account of Samson. 
The whole account is a remarkable one. This account 
was written long after the life of Samson. In our judg- 
ment, it is not best to understand in any very literal 
sense the account of the great feats he performed. In 
ignorant ages, marvelous stories are apt to gather round 
the memory of great men. It may well be that Samson 
was a most valiant judge, and wrought a great deliver- 
ance for his people, and around him had gathered these 
stories. The inspired writer deemed it best to make 
little change in them, well knowing the people Avould 
understand the figurative dress in which they were 
clothed. 

One who will faithfully read the book of Judges can 
not help seeing how plainly is indicated the low state of 
culture among them, and will be able to more clearly 
appreciate the remarks we have already made on that 
point. Notice how ready the people were to go off into 
idolatry. The very generation that witnessed the great 
miracles, wrought at Joshua's command, seemed to forget 
the worship of God, and, with strange alacrity, em- 
braced idolatry. Gideon, the valiant warrior, himself 
sat up an ephod for worship. Jephthah, the victorious 
judge, offers up his own daughter in sacrifice. Samson, 
the strong, is represented as leading a profligate life. 



.312 



THE T.ITSLE COMPANION. 



The tribe of Dan worshiped graven images. 1 All the 
tribes unite to crush Benjamin, when but few could 
have boon guilty. It is said in several places that 
"every man did that which was right in his own eyes." 
And yet, during all this long time, the people must have 
been slowly advancing in culture. How clearly does this 
simple fact explain many difficulties! 

FIRST SAMUEL. 

1 Samuel v and vi. The ark of the Lord in the 
country of the Philistines. The miraculous incidents of 
this event are, of course, beyond our understanding. 
They are to be accepted as examples of divine power 
working in some unknown way "His wonders to per- 
form." Some questions may be raised, however. In 
the third verse of chapter six they are advised to send 
it back with a "trespass offering." What did the 
Philistines know about a trespass offering? This was 
a rite instituted by Moses. In the sixth verse of the 
same chapter they (the Philistines) arc cautioned not to 
harden their hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did. 
How did the Philistines know anything about this event? 
Probably the writer of the original account' 2 put into the 
mouths of these priests such advice as, from his stand- 
point, would be eminently proper. 

1 Samuel xv. The destruction of Amalek. When 
we read this account we are once more reminded that 
we are dealing with a people still far from being en- 
lightened, and they were surrounded by barbarians. 
Shall we say God approved of this course? Reflect 
that three centuries, or more, had passed since the Ama- 
lekites had oppressed the children of Israel on the 

1 Judges xviii, 30. 2 Page 60. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



513 



journey through the wilderness. What shall we say, 
then, to the command in the third verse: "Slay both 
man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, 
camel and ass?" How reconcile this with the command 
that the fathers should not be put to death for what the 
children had done, nor the children for what the fathers 
had done? 1 

The same explanation is at hand as has been given 
in other cases, and it seems to us it is the only one to 
be adopted. The command given in Deuteronomy was 
binding on the nation. You will observe, furthermore, 
that this command of Samuel to Saul was to be a fulfill- 
ment of Moses' command in Deuteronomy xxv, 17-19. 
We can not believe that this course was pleasing to 
God, only in this way : that, in a review of all the cir- 
cumstances of the case, all the surroundings, the state of 
life, the degree of enlightenment, it was thought best 
that it be caused to come to pass. We may suppose he 
was leading these rude people gradually to a higher 
plane of life. We must make some allowance for lan- 
guage here. The destruction Avas not as complete as 
here indicated. Twenty years later these people invaded 
Juclah and Philistia. 2 Are there not other parts of this 
chapter in which the language is to be taken with 
allowance ? 

1 Samuel xvi, 14-15. We refer to these two verses, 
since they are a good example of how apt the Old Tes- 
tament writers were to use language which, doubtless, 
conveys to our minds an idea very different from what 
it did to the people for whom it was originally intended. 
We do not suppose this evil spirit that troubled Saul 
was from the Lord, yet that is what the language states. 

1 Deuteronomy xxiv, 16. 2 1 Samuel xxx. 



514 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Probably the Hebrews understood very well that that 
was simply a form of words to express the fact that Saul 
gave himself over to the influence of the "evil spirit," 
but not that it came from God. It becomes us at this 
day to recognize this tendency in these old writers, and 
make allowances for it. This, in itself, would remove 
many difficulties from the Bible statements. It would, 
in many cases, remove any necessity for supposing God 
approved of some of their cruel acts. 

1 Samuel xvii. David's encounter with Goliath. Six 
cubits and a span in height would be some over nine 
feet, which, while an extraordinary height, is not neces- 
sarily excessive. We may well believe the entire ac- 
count. It would be (piite in keeping with the customs 
of early men. Each army would put forth a champion 
to make the battle for it. Near the end of the chapter 
we notice some confusion in the account, which can only 
be explained by supposing the author of this book copied, 
to some extent, from other manuscripts. David could 
not have carried the head to Jerusalem, for it was not in 
their possession until about fifteen years later. Saul had 
been acquainted with David for some time; knew who 
he was; had him for a musician and armor-bearer, and 
had talked with him about this encounter; so it is not 
likely he would have questioned as to who he was, as is 
here represented. 

1 Samuel xxviii, 3-21. The witch of Endor. There 
are some very strange statements made in this chapter. 
Spiritualists explain it by saying the woman was a me- 
dium ; others, where they attempt any explanation of it 
at all, simply say that God overruled the devices of this 
woman, and permitted, for once, her efforts to be crowned 
with success. We think this is the true explanation of 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



515 



it, and have already pointed out the similarity between 
this account and that of the prophet Balaam. 

1 Samuel xxx, 7. David is mentioned in several 
places as inquiring of the Lord by means of an ephod, or 
priestly garment. Notice, he does not worship the ephod, 
as Gideon did. Why this should have been considered 
necessary, or how the Lord permitted his will to be made 
known by means of it, no one knows. We are not to 
suppose it was in audible voice. 

SECOND SAMUEL. 

2 Samuel vi, 6, 7. The death of Uzzah. This event 
may seem to us to be unnecessarily harsh. We may 
suppose that Uzzah had the very best of intentions. 
We must remember, however, that the Jews had been 
trained to the greatest reverence in regard to the ark. 
The account is very brief. It may be that all were com- 
manded not to touch it. 1 

2 Samuel xxiv. This chapter is a very singular one. 
In the first verse it would seem to teach that the Lord 
moved David to number Israel, and was then about to 
punish him for it. We are glad this verse is expressed 
just the way it is, because it shows the custom of the 
Old Testament writers of representing the Lord as doing- 
all that He permits others to do. By turning to Chroni- 
cles xxi, 1, we read that it was Satan that moved David 
to do this. With this signal example before us, Ave must 
be very careful about construing the language of some 
parts. Because the accounts would seem to imply that the 
Lord sanctioned or commanded some of their cruel acts, 
perhaps we shall not be far out of the way to understand 
that such acts came from the evil one, instead of the Lord. 

1 1 Chronicles xv, 13. 



516 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Something must be left out of the account, because 
we can not see any wrong in merely taking the census. 
We may suppose that the people were given to under- 
stand that such an act would he displeasing to the Lord. 
We may be sure it was souk; intentional disobedience on 
David's part. But if David did wrong, we can not see 
why seventy thousand innocent people should be pun* 
ished therefor. We know that the writers of the Bible 
describe events as they appeared to them. This is prob- 
ably their \\ ay of accounting for a plague which visited Is- 
rael. I nit spared Jerusalem itself. In no very direct way 
did the "Lord repent Ilim of the evil." It is a way of 
speaking of the Lord as it appears to men, and not as it 
was strictly true of God's choices or feelings. It is said 
of the Lord, "for He is not a man, that He should 
repent." 1 

FIKST KINGS. 

1 Kings ii, 4. Let us notice the condition of the 
promise that a son of David should always sit on his 
throne: "If thy children take heed to their way, to 
walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with 
all their soul." Since this condition was not met, Da- 
vid's children ceased to sit on his throne. No one is 
justified in assuming that Christ will sit on this earthly 
throne as David's son. 

We are told considerable about the prophet Elijah's 
life in this book. How God imparted to him his knowl- 
edge of future events we do not know, nor have we any 
theory as to how the miracles were wrought at his com- 
mand. We are not to suppose God spoke unto prophets 
in an audible voice : sometimes in dreams, 2 sometimes in 

'1 Samuel xv, 29. 1 Numbers xii, 6. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



517 



visions, 1 and sometimes in the " still small voice." 2 
Sometimes they sought the aid of music to get into a 
proper frame of mind to receive the word of the Lord. 3 
The prophecies of the Bible are so important that we 
have made them the subject of another chapter. 

SECOND KINGS. 

2 Kings ii, 23, 24. The destruction of the little chil- 
dren. On the face of this account it is difficult to believe 
that God could approve of it. It is, at any rate, very 
different from the example of Christ, who when He was 
reviled reviled not again, 4 or of Paul, who returned a 
blessing when reviled. 5 Perhaps all the circumstances 
are not recorded, or if, indeed, they are, it is only to be 
accounted for by the rudeness of the times. 

The first thirteen chapters of this book are largely 
concerned with a brief history of Elisha, and contain many 
remarkable statements. The chariot of fire summons 
Elijah from the scenes of earth. The waters of the Jor- 
dan retire on either side to afford a dry passage for the 
prophets, and the before bitter springs of Jericho are now 
rendered sweet. The land of Moab is flooded with water 
from some unknown source, and the Moabites are lured 
on to destruction. The marvelous flow of oil relieves 
the pious widow of her distress, and the Shunammite 
woman's son is restored to life. The pottage prepared 
from poisonous gourds makes a nutritious dish for the 
multitude. Leprosy departs from the Syrian general, 
but the curse is transferred to deceiving Gehazi. The 
iron ax swims when the prophet casts in his piece of 
wood. 

1 2 Samuel vii, 17. 2 1 Kings xix, 12. 3 2 Kings iii, 15. * 1 Peter ii, 23. 
5 1 Corinthians iv, 12. 



518 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



The secret intentions of the Syrians are made known 
to the Israelites, and the forces sent to take the prophet 
are smitten with blindness, while chariots of fire are near 
to protect Elisha. The besieging and nearly victorious 
Syrians are stricken with sudden terror, and, panic- 
stricken, they fly, leaving- their stores behind them to 
appease the wants of the famishing Israelites. Elisha 
announces to kings their doom, and makes known to 
subordinate generals their approaching accession to 
kingly power. lie comforts the faint-hearted king of 
Israel, but informs him he will only check, not destroy, 
the .Syrians. Finally, after death had claimed this emi- 
nent prophet, his very bones suffice to call back the 
fleeting breath of life into the body of a man who, by 
accident, touched them. 

Nowhere in the Bible is there recorded a more strik- 
ing series of miracles. All honest minds who have 
pondered over them have been very free to admit that 
to our human understanding they present great difficul- 
ties. The very best way is to leave them as we found 
them — difficulties. No one is competent to explain 
them. They lie to one side of the Christian's path; that 
is, the path of every-day duty. Perhaps, at some not 
very distant day, we will understand these Bible expres- 
sions much better than we do now, and Christians of all 
denominations may agree to give to such accounts such 
a different meaning that what is noAv enshrouded in 
doubt will become radiant with the light of under- 
standing. 

FIRST AND SECOND CHRONICLES. 

As these books cover the same time that Samuel and 
Kings do, and are probably compiled from much the 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



519 



same source, they do not present any new difficulties. 
A study of them, on the other hand, suggests some 
thoughts in regard to Old Testament writings that may 
serve to remove some difficulties. The author of 
Chronicles was as much inspired to write his account of 
these events as was the author of the other books. They 
compiled largely from the same source. Yet, notice how 
the different objects which the writers had in view 
influence their statements. 1 In the life of David, for 
instance, see how carefully Chronicles omits to mention 
David's grievous sin in the matter of Bathsheba, nor is 
any mention made of the troubles caused David by his 
children, especially by Absalom. 

The writer wished to give only the best side of 
David's reign. Had it occurred to him that David's 
treatment of the Ammonites 2 was barbarous and cruel, 
it would probably have been omitted. He chose to 
represent the accession of Solomon as peaceful and 
glorious, whereas in Kings we know that it was accom- 
panied by serious disturbances. Sometimes he deemed 
it best to explain more at length, as, for instance, in ex- 
plaining the death of Uzzah. 3 He makes some changes 
where he thinks the true meaning will be better 
expressed. Instead of agreeing with Kings that the 
Lord moved David to number Israel, he says it was 
Satan. In Kings we read that Shishak, king of Egypt, 
invaded Judah, no explanation being given. 4 Chronicles 
gives what he thinks is a sufficient explanation for this 
event; 5 but this illustrates the customs of Old Testament 
writers, for, while every statement in this explanation 
may be true, yet the proximate, the moving cause of 

1 Page 64. 2 1 Chronicles xx, 3. 9 1 Chronicles xiii, 9, 10. 

* 1 Kings xiv, 45. 5 2 Chronicles xii. 
31 



520 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



this invasion is not given. Shishak probably invaded 
Judah because Jeroboam, king of Israel, then at war with 
Judah, was his ally. 1 

These remarks serve to illustrate and enforce what 
we have had to say in another place.- It shows us how 
true it is that the books of the Bible partake of the 
mental peculiarities of the men who wrote them; their 
modes of thought, habits of life, their intellectual sur- 
roundings, the common knowledge of the people for whom 
their writings were intended, all influence their account. 
We must always take them into consideration. It seems 
to us that when this is done many difficulties disappear. 

As we have fully treated the prophetic books in 
another place, it docs not seem wise to review them 
again, especially as the difficulties we would meet would 
be the same in kind as those we have examined, and the 
same explanation would be given. Jt will be observed 
that we have not tried to dodge difficulties that, to some, 
at least, are very great. It is best to be perfectly can- 
did in discussions of this nature. It is worse than use- 
less to attempt to remove difficulties by giving, in ex- 
planation of the same, reasons that sensible men at once 
reject. 

It is useless to shut our eyes to the fact that the spirit 
of the Old Testament, in some places and in some 
respects, is unlike that of the New. It is said that the 
severest denunciations in the Bible fall from the lips of 
Christ. 3 Those who make such remarks surely have not 
considered carefully. How Christ mourns the necessity 
of such severe denunciations ! He tells them, " How oft 
would I have gathered thy children, and ye would not." 4 
We look in vain for such a spirit in some of the impre- 

1 Page 252. 2 Page 36. 3 Matthew xxiii, 13-33. * Same, verse 37. 



I 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



521 



catory psalms. 1 But we must not lose sight of the fact 
that these sentiments are colored by the medium through 
which they come to us. Reflect that the last hook of 
the Old Testament is supposed to have been written 
nearly four hundred years before Christ, and most of 
them were written long before the fires of civilization 
had been lighted in Europe. With the purer light of the 
New Testament before us, we can not help seeing that 
they held some views about the moral government of 
God that were scarcely correct. 

In the JSTew Testament Ave will confine our attention 
to the narratives of Christ's life. Not that the other 
books are entirely free from difficulties, but they are of 
such a nature that it does not seem advisable to dwell 
on them. 

Matthew i and Luke iii, 23-38. The genealogy of 
Christ. The probabilities are that Matthew gives his 
genealogy through Joseph, while Luke gives it through 
Mary. We must understand that these tables were 
compiled from the public registers. We have referred 
to the fact that Matthew omits some generations. In 
verse eight, between Joram and Ozias (Jehoram and 
Uzziah), three generations are omitted. 2 One generation 
is omitted in verse eleven — this was King Jehoiakim. 3 
Verse seventeen, of this chapter, was probably added by 
some copyist in explanation of such omission. Matthew 
wished to make his table in three divisions, fourteen 
generations in each. 

One great object that Matthew kept in mind was to 
conciliate the Jews as much as possible. His gospel 
was directed primarily to them. 4 He, therefore, sets 
forth many events in the life of Christ as fulfillment of 

1 Psalms lviii and lix. 2 Pages 261, 2. s Page 271. * Page 95. 



522 



TITE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Old Testament prophecies. That many of the predic- 
tions of Old Testament prophets had reference to Christ 
is freely admitted. But we must understand some of 
Matthew's statements as simply a reference to an analogy 
between events in the life of Christ and some sayings 
contained in the Old Testament. Our translators make 
Matthew use the expression, "That it might be ful- 
filled." The original Greek eould be correctly rendered, 
"So that it was fulfilled, " and this should be the trans- 
lation used in many instances. 

Matthew i, 23. Matthew was quick to notice the 
analogies to which we have referred, and made use of 
them as much as possible, seeking by such means to 
influence the Jews. In this instance we have reference 
to a prophecy of Isaiah's. We have already shown that 
Christ's birth was not referred to in this passage. 1 
But one event was something like the other. As Im- 
manuel was born to be a sign to Ahaz, so was Christ 
born to be a sign to the Jews. 

Matthew ii, 15. In this verse we have a reference 
to the saying of Ilosea. 2 But any one who will read 
Hosea sees that the prophet was not making a predic- 
tion at all. He was simply stating a fact. God had, in- 
deed, called his son " Israel " up out of Egypt, under 
the leadership of Moses, many centuries before; but 
there was some analogy between Jesus, God's Son, com- 
ing up out of Egypt, and that event, and Matthew calls 
their attention to it. 

Matthew ii, 18. This case is similar to the last. Ref- 
erence is made to a quotation from Jeremiah. 3 But by 
reading this verse, in connection with the rest of the 
section in Jeremiah, we see this was no prediction con- 

J Page 438. 2 Hosea xi, 1. 3 Jeremiah xxxi, 15. 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



523 



cerning Christ. In the language of poetry, the prophet 
was telling of the sorrows through which Israel had 
passed. Herod did not put to death the children in 
Ramah, but only in and around Bethlehem, whereas 
Ramah is some ninety miles to the north. But the ex- 
perience of the mothers of Bethlehem was painfully like 
that described of the mothers of Ramah. 

Matthew ii, 23. Here we read that it was predicted 
that Christ should be called a Nazarene. There is no 
such a prediction concerning Christ in the Bible, as we 
have it. It was, indeed, said of Samson that he should 
be called a Nazarite. 1 That is, that he should belong to 
the peculiar sect called by that name. We have no 
doubt this was fulfilled in the case of Samson. Christ 
was not a JVazarite, but lived in Nazareth, and was, 
doubtless, called a Nazarene. In this case the similarity 
was simply in the sound of the words, but, feeble as it 
was, Matthew thought it best to call the attention of the 
Jews to it. 

Luke ii, 42-52. Christ, child, disputing in the 
temple. Luke is the only one of the evangelists that 
records this incident in the life of Christ. We have 
seen that the apocryphal gospels are full of miraculous 
incidents in the life of Christ as a boy, and this story is 
among them. 2 Some candid minds can not help com- 
menting on this fact. Luke was probably not converted 
to Christianity until several years after Christ's death. 
He tells us, in his introduction, that many had written 
about Christ, and so, probably, some apocryphal gospels 
were in existence. He rejects the incidents they con- 
tained of Christ's boyhood, except this one. 

As he wrote under the guidance of inspiration, we 

'Judges xiii, 5. 2 Page 152. 



S24 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



are not to reject the incident, though there is nothing 
to prevent our supposing it to be somewhat colored, since 
Luke, in his account, would be necessarily influenced by 
common understanding in regard to it. And let us say 
Pight here that one of the strongest arguments that the 
authors of the four gospels were in sonic way assisted 
by the Divine Spirit, in writing these memoirs of Christ, 
Is the simple fact that they rejected, as of no account, 
the numerous stories that were doubtless afloat of the 
miracles he wrought while yet a boy. Because Luke has 
recorded this incident, we are not thereby authorized to 
assume that the many other miraculous incidents in the 
apocryphal gospels are true, or have any reasonable 
foundation. 

Jesus was subject to his parents. There is every 
evidence that they were very poor folks. He doubtless 
followed the trade of his father, which was that of a car- 
penter. We do not suppose he made any improvements 
in this trade, or that he was noted as an especially line 
workman. Subsequently his countrymen were much sur- 
prised at his learning. They ask, "Is not this the car- 
penter's son?" They mention his brothers and sisters, 
as much as to say, "Are they noted for their learning?" 
All this shows that, with this exception, Christ had not 
Seen fit to manifest His divine power before He com- 
menced His public ministry. 

Matthew iv, 1-11. Christ's temptation. All the 
evangelists give us substantially the same account 
of Christ's temptation. It is not best to suppose that 
the tempter appeared to Christ in a visible form, and 
literally put Him on the pinnacle of the temple. This 
was probably not done bodily, but in thought or concep- 
tion. That Ave are justified in accepting this explanation 



BIBLE DIFFICULTIES. 



525 



seems clear, since we know that Christ "was tempted 
in all points like as we are." 

The miracles Christ performed in the course of His 
ministry are numerous and very important. They won- 
derfully strengthened the faith of those who saw them. 
We can no more explain them than we can any other 
miracles of the Bible. They are to be accepted as evi- 
dence of divine power working in some unknown way. 
Whether it be turning water into wine, feeding the 
multitude with a few loaves and fishes, walking on the 
angry waters of the sea, healing the sick, or raising the 
dead, they are alike incomprehensible to us. We can 
only caution all to attempt no explanation of them. We 
can believe the statements, admit our ignorance, and 
leave them, as we found them, difficulties. 

But certain statements made by the evangelists are 
of a different nature. We notice that Christ is often 
mentioned as casting out evil spirits. In some instances, 
the unclean spirits are represented as confessing that 
He was the Christ. In another, they beseech Him that, 
when they are cast out of the human being, they might 
enter into a drove of swine, and the destruction of the 
swine is thereupon noticed ; and, in the last chapter of 
Mark, we read of seven devils being cast out of one 
woman. But in this latter case, as we learn from the Re- 
vised Version, there are grave doubts whether this was 
written by Mark. It was probably appended to the 
gospel by some copyist. But such explanation is not at 
hand in the majority of instances. 

It seems to us that a simple explanation can be given. 
Of course, no one now believes that, literally speaking, 
evil spirits were ever accustomed to take up their abode 
in mortal bodies. Christ did not deem it wise to impart 



526 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



to His disciples all knowledge. He gave them no dis- 
course on astronomy, nor sought in any way to instill 
into their minds a knowledge of physiology and hygiene. 
They knew no more about the circulation of the blood, 
or any other fact of natural science, than the common 
knowledge of the day. At that day, and for centuries 
afterward, it was the common belief that the many ills 
to which flesh is heir were caused by demons who had 
tak< n up their residence in the human tabernacle. The 
healing of diseases would be considered casting out of 
devils. They would, therefore, describe many of the 
healing miracles of Christ in this way. We are by no 
means to understand that these statements are literally 
true. All we need to understand is, that Christ caused 
the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and 
the demoniac ones to recover their reason. 

Ami now, one Avord more before bringing this chapter 
to a close. We have been professedly seeking difficulties. 
We have been trying to discover weak points in the 
Bible. A great host of writers have shown us the many 
strong points. The wisest scholarship of the day bows 
down to its teachings. When we consider how free it is 
from scientific errors, what grand conceptions the Old 
Testament writers held of God, One eternal self-existing 
Being, who created all things, what wonderful prophe- 
cies it contains, how free the entire Bible is from vain 
and foolish speculations which we discover in every 
other book of antiquity, we need not doubt that its 
authors were in some way assisted by God's Spirit in 
writing it. 



GOD. 



529 



God. 



E have both a natural and a revealed religion. 
The natural religion is such conceptions of God 
and duty as naturally arise when men begin to 
" feel after God." Man was made in the image 
of God, given a moral and a spiritual nature; hence it 
is as natural that he should form conceptions of some 
being worthy of adoration as it is that flowers should 
bloom and expand in the sunlight. But as the Author 
of nature is superior to nature and all the works of His 
creation, these conceptions would necessarily remain 
very imperfect. For this reason the Bible is given us 
as the divinely inspired message from God to man, to 
enable our feeble understanding to come to more worthy 
ideas of the Ruler of all. 

Most men, in their conception of God, doubtless have 
some views of God neither in harmony with what the 
Bible teaches nor Avith sound philosophy. It may, 
therefore, be well to examine more particularly the 
Bible views, and subject our conception of God to the 
revelations made in His Word. We notice, first, that 
the Bible simply assumes the existence . of God, and 
makes no attempt to prove it. There are certain truths 
we call axioms; that is, they are so plainly true that no 
amount of reasoning can make them any plainer. Thus 
we say, "Space is infinite." Any one who understands 
what is meant by space will at once assent to the truth 
of this saying; no amount of reasoning will make it any 




530 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



plainer. So the Bible assumes that the mere statement 
of the existence 1 of God is sufficient; that it is a truth 
that will be at once admitted by all, ;md that no argu- 
ments will make it any plainer. Men have sought to 
prove the existence of God. Their arguments, of course, 
are weighty, but they are not at all necessary. Every 
human heart assents, without requiring proof, to the 
existence of a First Cause. They differ, of course, in 
fche names bestowed on this power; but that is a matter 
of little moment. 

The Bible teaches, further, that God had always ex-, 
isted and always will exist. This is also involved in our 
conception of God. We sec the statement is also true 
of such matters as space, time, and moral and mathemat- 
ical laws. Some minds conceive it to be true, also, of 
matter. This is not clear to all. The Bible abounds in 
texts teaching this of God. One of the names of God, 
that is usually written Jehovah, is from the Hebrew, and 
means lie who is, was, and is fo be. It is said of God 
that He is the " lofty One that inhabiteth eternity." We 
are told of "the Lord, the everlasting God;" the Lord 
is from everlasting to everlasting." 

The Bible teaches that God is omnipotent. But we 
must use judgment in regard to this point. It is not 
meant that he does everything, or that he can do natural 
impossibilities. We can conceive of many things that 
omnipotent power can not do. It can not cause a body to 
both exist and not exist at the same time, nor that a body 
shall exist in two different places at the same time. 
Omnipotence means all-power — that is, power to do any- 
thing that can be done. A being possessed of such 
power may be said to be omnipotent, and this is true of 
God. Neither can God do a thing morally impossible. 



GOD. 



531 



For instance, man is a free moral agent — one that has 
the power of choosing to obey or disobey. He is not a 
machine that must move in a certain way only. This 
being so, God can not compel him, against his wishes, to 
obey Him. He can not take a wicked man, and, against 
that man's wish, make a good man of him. We can not 
conceive of Him thus converting a person against his 
wish to be converted, or when that person is unconscious 
or in slumber. We know that some have thought He 
could. But this is a moral impossibility — a contradic- 
tion in terms ; and had God such power, it would be His 
duty to convert all. No one ever yet entered the narrow 
way that did not himself strive to do so. No one was 
ever forced into heaven. 

God, according to the Bible, is also omniscient — that 
is, knowing all things. He knows all that can be known 
and all He ever will know. The past, the present, and 
the future are present to Him as past, present, or future. 
The future is not to Him as the past, but is seen as 
future. This omniscence of God we can not know; we 
can not understand how it is, but it is fully taught in the 
Bible. 

The Bible further teaches that God is incomprehensi- 
ble — not completely so, but that we can not know all 
about Him. It asks, "Canst thou find out the Almighty 
to perfection?" It asserts, "Great is the Lord. . . . 
His greatness is unsearchable." Some men teach in 
reference to God a philosophy known as Agnosticism, 
which teaches that we can not know for certain about 
these things. Some good people are much alarmed 
about this. While men may carry this philosophy too 
far, there is surely no objection to teaching that there is 
much in relation to the world and ourselves which we 



532 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



can not know. And there are some things about God 
that we can not know. 

The Bible teaches that God is a changeless being, 
"the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." The prophet 
represents God saying, "For I am the Lord; I change 
not." This is an important fact to remember, for it 
helps us in judging of the true import of some doctrines 
pertaining to God. " God is love." He chooses the high- 
est good of all creatures, and does all that He sees He 
can do to secure this good. lie not only docs this now, 
but always did, and always will. There will be no time 
and no place in the universe when and where He will 
not do all that He sees best to secure the highest good 
of all. lie may change His treatment of men — indeed 
He must change His treatment of men when they change. 
Love inflicts evil when it is for the best good. God 
does this now. He will always act on this principle. 

He desires all men to be saved. It is said of Him, 
'W ho wishes all men to be saved and come to the knowl- 
edge of the truth." He is "not willing that any should 
perish," and never will be. Yet men do perish, and 
probably always will. God is merciful, and always will 
be. We have no warrant for singing, "Mercy knows its 
appointed bounds, and turns to vengeance there." Mercy 
never turns to vengeance in a changeless being. God is 
merciful now, but He punishes or executes vengeance 
now. God may treat some men better than others, be- 
cause they are so situated that He can. Some children 
starve, while others have more than enough — not because 
God is partial, but because some are situated so differ- 
ently. The iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the 
children by necessary laws, by which God governs all 
things. 



GOD. 



533 



We have thus far been speaking of the attributes of 
God as revealed by the Bible. There are many texts in 
the Bible which, in speaking of the person of God, or of 
the works of God, appear to make some distinction of 
person in the Deity. So has arisen what is generally 
called the trinity of persons in God. All understand the 
Bible to teach there is only one God, one divine being. 
All admit that the Bible teaches the unity of God — that 
he is one and not many; but, with this unity plainly 
taught, there are expressions not easily understood, that 
imply either diversity of persons or of office. 

These expressions occur all through the Bible. In 
the Old Testament, one of the common names for God is 
EloMm. This is translated God. It is the plural form 
of a Hebrew word. It may be the plural of excellency, 
or it may point to the distinction referred to. In the New 
Testament, a wonderful being appeared as the Christ. 
He usually spoke of Himself as the Son of man. He 
was generally spoken of, after His crucifixion and ascen- 
sion, as the Son of God. He represents Himself as sent 
by the Father, and as one with the Father, and yet He 
taught that the Father was greater than He. He claimed 
He was "before Abraham," and enjoyed glory with the 
Father "before the world was." 

John calls this Being, before He "became flesh and 
dwelt among us," the Word, and claims that this Word 
was in the beginning with God, and "was God," also that 
all things that were made were made by Him. We are 
told that this Christ was with the Church in the wilder- 
ness, was the "Rock from which they all drank." He is 
called "God, our Savior," "the Great God," and claimed 
to have life in Himself, and to be the Judge of the 
world, and had a right to forgive sins. It seems clearly 



531 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



taught that the Jehovah of the Old Testament was the 
same as the Word of John, and that He appeared as 
Jehovah to many of the Old Testament worthies. And 
it also appears that men are "to honor the Son, even as 
they honor the Father." 

Not only is God represented in this way as Father 
and Si.]], but there is another distinction called the Holy 
Spirit, who has divine attributes ascribed to Him. He 
is the Comforter with all Christians in all parts of the 
world, lie is spoken of as the One who strengthens men 
in the inner man, and as the One by whom, strengthened, 
Paul could do all things. Thus we sec the Bible speaks 
of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The same 
division appears in the works of Deity. The Father is 
represented as doing but little in the work of creation, or 
genera] providence. We read that "the Word (Christ) 
made all tilings that were made." God made the world 
by Christ, "whom He appointed heir of all things, 
through whom also He made the worlds." We are also 
told the Father "judgeth no man, but hath committed 
all judgment to the Son." Still the Father does some 
things. It is not for us to know times or seasons which 
the Father hath set within His own authority. "But of 
that day and hour knowcth no man, not even the angels 
of heaves, neither the Son, but the Father only." Here 
the Father determines certain things. And we also read, 
God " sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever bc- 
lieveth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life." When we have the word God by itself, usually we 
may understand the Father is referred to; but this is 
certainly not the case in all instances. 

The Son — or the Word — is represented as doing 
nearly all that is done by God in the outward material 



GOD. 



535 



world. "He made everything that was made." "By 
Him the worlds were made." He appeared to the patri- 
archs, He went down to destroy Sodom, He delivered 
Israel from Egypt, He was with the Israelites in the 
wilderness. He appeared in the person of Jesus and 
died for men, He revealed to men the Father, He raises 
the dead, He judges all men. All appearances of God to 
men were made by Christ, and all the exhibitions of 
divine power in the material world were made by Him. 

It is the Holy Spirit that works in moral and spirit- 
ual things. It is the Spirit who is the Comforter, Avho 
comforts all Christians. • It is the Spirit that dwells in 
Christians. "Know ye not that your bodies are temples 
of the Holy Spirit which is in you?" It is the Spirit 
that strengthens men by might in the inner man, the 
Spirit that makes intercession for us with groanings that 
can not be uttered; the Spirit enlightens the conscience, 
brings truths to men's minds, sanctifies and keeps men. 
In short, internal and moral works are peculiarly the 
works of the Spirit. 

When we consider the unity of God, so plainly set 
forth in the Bible with this seeming diversity, what are 
we to understand? It seems to us that this is one re- 
spect in which God is incomprehensible. The writers 
of the Bible did not see fit, or rather they were not com- 
missioned, to formulate any theory on this point. And 
it seems to us that men know far too little to form a 
theory of their own. We can accept, as true, all the 
Bible says about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, 
with no theory about a matter so high above us. Men, 
after reverent study of the Bible, have framed theories, 
but some are so framed in language that no one knows 
anything more about the matter. Others contain state- 



536 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ments that we can not know to be true. We are ex- 
pressly told that we can not by searching find out God. 
This seems to be one of the points veiled in mystery; we 
can accept it as true, yet not profess to understand it. 

It is best to mention some erroneous views which 
some have entertained in regard to God — views not 
taught in the Bible. The Hebrews were much in the 
habit of ascribing everything that took place directly to 
God. Many religious teachers are influenced by this 
view to-day. This must, however, be guarded against. 
It misrepresents God, and is not true to known facts. 
There is a great deal of sorrow and suffering in the 
world. All such visitations may conduce to good, but 
we are not to assume they are sent by God. Job's 
friends assumed this to be true, and we read how they 
were rebuked for their sayings. A favorite child sickens 
and dies ; no one has a right to say this is the Lord's 
doings. The fact is, sickness, sorrow, and afflictions a,tm 
generally the results of our own or other's indiscretions, 
and to say they are sent by God is often wronging Him. 
We would not for a moment teach these events are not 
overruled for good. A loving household is plunged into 
sorrow by the wicked actions of some member. This 
sorrow may result in bringing the other members nearer 
to God ; but shall we hold that God caused the wayward 
one to go astray ? 

The Bible conception, then, of God is one, self-existent, 
eternal Being, who is omnipotent and omniscient. He 
is, in many respects, incomprehensible. He is change- 
less, and thus is always love, and always exercises mercy. 
Though His unity is plainly taught, we are also told of 
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 
We are to accept the Bible statements in this matter; 



GOD. 



537 



but, as the Bible gives no theory of its own, we are not 
to be sure we understand it. This seems to be one of 
the things about God that is incomprehensible. It is 
the duty of all men to search the Scriptures, and learn 
of God and his ways. 

In the words of another: "The accusations of con- 
science evidence the omniscience and the holiness of God ; 
the terrors of conscience, the justice of God ; the appro- 
bation of conscience, the goodness of God. All the order 
in the world owes itself, next to the providence of God, 
to conscience ; without it the world would be a Golgotha. 
As the creatures witness there was a First Cause that pro- 
duced them, so this principle in man evidenceth itself to 
be set by the same hand for the good of that which it 
hath so formed. There could be no conscience if there 
were no God, and man could not be a rational creature 
if there were no conscience." 1 

" While earthly objects are exhausted by familiarity, 
the thought of God becomes to the devout man contin- 
ually brighter, richer, vaster ; derives fresh luster from 
all that he observes of nature and providence, and 
attracts to itself all the glories of the universe. The 
devout man, especially in moments of strong religious 
sensibility, feels distinctly that he has found the true 
happiness of man. He has found a Being for his vener- 
ation and love, whose character is inexhaustible — who, 
after ages shall have passed, will still be uncomprehended 
in the extent of His perfections, and will still communi- 
cate to the pure mind stronger proofs of His excellence 
and more intimate signs of His approval." 2 

1 Cliarnock. 2 Channing. 



32 



538 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ERSOXS who have exerted great and controll- 
ing influences over masses of men have great- 
ness in themselves. As, in nature, "every 
event lias a cause," so, in social and religious 
things, all lasting influences have a cause. A meteor 
may be very brilliant for a moment, hut its light does 
in it last. A planet may not be so dazzling, but its light 
continues from age to age. Men who have greatly 
changed and modified the civil, social, or religious statu 
of large communities have been men largely endowed. 
Buddha, whose influence is still very great over many 
millions in Asia, though more than two thousand years 
have come and gone since he taught, certainly had ele- 
ments of greatness. Moses, who gave both form and 
substance to the civil and religions life of the Hebrews, 
was certainly a great man. 

Jesus Christ, by this test, must have been not only 
a marvelous man, but also God-like, to have started an 
influence that has done so much to change the customs, 
religious theories, and moral life of the nations that have 
accepted Him as their Lord and Master. This influence 
is still spreading. If His light started as the star of 
Bethlehem, it is destined to become the sun of righteous- 
ness, that shall illumine all the dark world. By Jesus 
Christ is meant that marvelous Being who was born at 
Bethlehem, died on the cross at Jerusalem, ascended 
to heaven from the top of Olivet, and is the Savior of the 
world. 



JESUS CHRIST. 



539 



He is that Being in whom are united such apparent 
impossibilities, and of whom may be truly affirmed many 
apparently contradictory statements. He was the man 
of sorrow, yet the Son of God; the poor wanderer over 
the hills of Palestine, yet the maker of all things that 
were made. He had no place to lay His head, yet was 
Lord, Master, owner of all things. While dependent for 
His daily bread on friends who ministered to Him of 
their substance, yet He claimed that the silver and the 
gold of earth were His, and the cattle on a thousand hills 
belonged to Him. While He was a stumbling-block and 
a rock of offense to many, still was He the rock of whom 
Moses sang, and the rock that followed the Hebrews 
through their long wanderings in the desert wastes of 
Arabia. 

Not only are such seemingly conflicting things true 
of Him, but many others. While born in a caravansery, 
where cattle often fed, yet His birth was heralded by 
companies of the heavenly hosts that filled the sky with 
celestial music. His whole life shows that while He was 
a man and lived among men, yet was He no common 
man. Great men have usually attained to greatness by 
successfully destroying their fellow r -men, but to be known 
as kind and pure and meek is almost a reproach. Jesus 
appears as perfectly innocent, but no one ever felt that 
He lacked greatness. " The bruised reed He would not 
break, and the flickering wick He would not quench ;" 
but, with all this gentleness, no one ever thought Him 
weak. 

He successfully maintained His claim to be, in all 
respects, like His brethren, the children of men, but 
never admitted He had ever sinned. He never repented, 
never reformed. He visits sinners, and eats with them, 



540 



THE I5IBLE COMPANION. 



and had compassion on the fallen, still no one ever felt 
that 1 Lc was contaminated with them. So transcendental!^ 
pure was He that the best of men, and greatest benefac- 
tors of the race, are somehow put to shame when they 
cunt vast their lives with His, and are awed when they 
behold its simple majesty. So consistent had been His 
walk that He was never put to shame when He asked 
his angry enemies, "Which of you convictcth Me of 
sin?" Pilate, who delivered Him up to be crucified, was 
constrained to say : " I find no fault in this man." 

When we speak of Jesus, we mean that child, the 
burden of so many prophecies, of whom it was said, 
" Be shall be called Jesus, for He shall save his people 
from their sins." At His birth wise men from the East 
saw a star, and came seeking the child born to be a 
king, and when they found Him they made Him rich 
gifts, and worshiped Him. Herod, the king of Judea, 
was so filled with fear of this child that he put to death 
the young children of Bethlehem. That He might 
escape the cruel jealousy of this king, by divine direc- 
tion, He and his mother were taken down to Egypt. 
Little is said of His childhood, yet we are told that 
every one loved and admired Him. He increased in 
stature and in favor of God and man. 

When twelve years of age He went with His mother 
from Nazareth to Jerusalem ; and, when the friends were 
on their way home, He tarried among the learned doc- 
tors, both hearing their remarks and questioning them. 
They do not seem to have thought Him impertinent, or 
forward, or out of His place. JSfo ordinary boy of twelv 
could have done this. There must have been a som 
thing altogether unusual in his appearance and carriag 
When, after some two days, His mother found Him, an 



JESUS CHRIST. 



541 



sought to reprove Him, He simply asked if she did 
not know He ought to be about His Father's business. 
How this must have struck her, knowing what she did 
about her son. She said no more, but kept all these 
sayings and laid them up in her heart, and thought over 
the future of this strange child, who should cause the 
fall and rising of many. 

Soon we see Him on His way to John, who was bap- 
tizing great multitudes of people. He is about to enter 
on His life's work — the mission on which He came into 
the world. When He had thus publicly entered on His 
work, He receives a commission from the divine govern- 
ment. The Holy Spirit, in the likeness of a dove, de- 
scended and remained upon Him, and a voice from the 
upper air was heard, saying : " This is My beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him." Then He was 
drawn away into the wilderness, to commune with God 
and be fitted for His mission, and after forty days was 
sorely tempted — tempted as men are tempted. From 
this He comes forth triumphant over the forces of evil, 
and begins His preparatory work of making an im- 
pression on men, so that they might trust Him, confide 
in His power, and yield themselves to obey Him. He 
gathers around Him choice spirits as disciples ; He heals 
the sick, feeds the hungry, comforts the sad and dis- 
consolate. 

•He moves among men so wisely that even His ene- 
mies can never cast a calumny against Him. He is 
doing good to all, helping them ; goes down in His tender 
sympathy into the homes of the lowly, the sad, and the 
wretched. He takes their sorrows on Himself, and heals 
their sickness. He mingles with men in their joyous 
feasts, and shed tears of sympathizing sorrow with those 



512 



THE BIBLE COMPANfOX 



that weep. lie rebukes the proud and vicious, and 
comforts the penitent and obedient. When He sees the 
holy places in the temple defiled with sheep and oxen 
and money-changers, with a whip of curds He drives out 
these sheep and oxen, and overturns the tables of the 
money-changers, and does it Avith such a show of author- 
ity, and with such righteous exhibition of a sense of 
wrong, that the many did not lift a hand to hinder Him. 
Evidently they saw such majesty in His look and act 
that they did not dare to resist. 

He corrected the mistakes of the rabbis. He tore 
off the coverings with which the Old Testament laws were 
hidden, so that He seemed not to speak as the Scribes 
and Jewish doctors did, but as "one having- authority." 
He enunciated with force the spirituality of the law, and 
its all-comprehensiveness; and taught that to eat with- 
out the ceremonial washing of hands did not defile a 
man; also, that what was eaten did not make a man 
unclean, but the purposes that came from his will — these 
defile the man; for out of the heart (the will) come evil 
inventions and purposes, such as murders and thefts, 
which are the things that blacken a human soul. He 
took little children in His arms and blessed them, and 
comforted parents, the world over, by saying that of such 
was the kingdom of heaven; and that, instead of babies 
deserving all sorts of punishments because their fathers 
sinned, He taught they are dear to the heart of the 
loving Father, and are members of His happy kingdom 
of the blessed. 

"While he delighted in relieving bodily pains, and 
feeding the hungry, and cheering the sad, He was most 
intent on saving the lost. To the poor the gospel of 
saving grace was preached. He taught that the marvel- 



JESUS CHRIST. 



543 



ous love of God sent Him into the world that sinners 
might not remain in death, and pass through the long, 
sad night of banishment from the society and communion 
with God. He repeats the lessons taught by inspired 
prophets, that God is not willing that any should perish ; 
and, in order to save them, He had come to die for the 
sinning race, and give His life's most precious blood that 
it might somehow win them from their chosen service 
to sin, and bring them to love God and everything 
noble and pure. 

While Jesus may not be classed with men, since He 
was sinless, it is not because He was not a realman ; for, 
" since the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He 
also, Himself, in like manner partook of the same;" and 
"wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made 
like unto His brethren;" "for in that He himself hath 
suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor them that 
are tempted." "He also was tempted in all points like 
as we are." Being a man, He naturally shrank from the 
terrible death of crucifixion ; and while he prayed ear- 
nestly that this bitter cup might pass from Him, if it 
was the will of God, yet would He drink it to the dregs, 
if so his Father willed, giving us a most complete in- 
stance of prayer for escape from great evils, and yet 
most perfect devotion of His own purpose to obey the 
divine will. 

We see Him arrested and passing through the forms 
of a trial with the utmost dignity. Seeing that no defense 
would avail anything, He makes none. "As a lamb 
brought to the slaughter, so He opened not His mouth/' 
Still the case was so clear that Pilate, who was quite 
disposed to accommodate the Jews, could say: "I find 
no fault in this man." He is delivered to the Roman 



544 



Till: BIBLE COMPANION. 



soldiers to be crucified by them; in derision, He is 
crowned with thorns; and mocked with a royal robe, and 
led out of the city to die, that somehow men might 
through His death be saved from the power and pen- 
alty of sin. 

We see Him on the cross, forsaken by all His disci- 
ples lmt one. A company of women, who followed Him 
from Galilee, wept around the cross, at what seemed to 
them the sad closing of all their fond hopes that He 
was the long-looked-for Messiah, who was to deliver 
their nation from oppression, and to bring again the 
glory of Israel. 

We lieai- the almost wailing cry, "My Clod, my God-, 
why hast Thou forsaken me?" a cry most natural to a 
human soul, when apparently left of God in the power 
of his enemies. Upon this scene the sun refused to look, 
as if in pity for its Maker. For three long hours this 
darkness covered the land, a fitting symbol of the dark- 
ness in the minds of men. From the sufferer came the 
cry, "I thirst:" even the soldiers, familiar with suffer- 
ings and hardened to it, could but be touched, and, on a 
pole, raised to His lips a sponge saturated with a mixture 
designed to dull His sense of pain; tasting it, He refused 
to drink it, bowed His head, and died. The agony was 
over. The sacrifice was finished. Christ had lain down 
His life for men, that He might, by His blood, reconcile 
them to God. 

Loving hands took down the body; the beating heart 
was still, the death agony was over, and the body was 
hurriedly laid in a tomb, for the holy Sabbath drew 
nigh. The mourning ones went to their homes to rest 
on that day. While the body was thus at rest, the 
spirit went to Hades, the invisible future world, and it 



JESUS CHRIST. 



545 



would seem, from what Peter says, 1 that Christ, at this 
time, went and preached to the spirits in prison. A few 
hours pass away, the Sabbath is over, and loving feet 
hasten at early dawn to the tomb, with hands full of 
spices and costly gums, to embalm the body of Him they 
so fondly loved, anxious as to who should roll away the 
stone that formed the door to the tomb. To their sur- 
prise and sorrow, the tomb was empty. Bright angels 
told them that Christ had risen from death, and would 
shortly meet His disciples in Galilee. Soon He appeared 
to some alive, and continued, from time to time, to ap- 
pear to various persons for forty days, when He visibly 
ascended to heaven and was seen no more, except to 
John, who so bravely remained at the cross, when he 
was banished to the lonely, rocky island of Patmos, in 
the iEgean Sea, and to the earnest and zealous Saul, on 
his way to Damascus with persecutions in his heart. 

Before Christ's death, He promises His disciples that 
He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit — God 
invisible — God working on minds by motives and moral 
influences, who should remain with Christians, and with 
all Christians forever, or so long as they are present 
in the body and absent from the Lord. And we are 
told that this is better for the disciples than the per- 
sonal presence of Christ. While this Comforter is with 
Christ's followers Ave are not to think that He has lost 
interest in them or abandoned work for them. He is 
also an advocate — a paraclete — at the right hand of God, 
pleading with men to be reconciled to God. Christ is 
the central figure in the divine agency to secure human 
blessedness. We see in Christ all the divine power 
working in all practical ways to help men out of sin into 

1 1 Peter iii, 18. 



546 THE BIBLE COMPANION. 

obedience — out of wretchedness into blessedness — out of 
death, that dreadful death, that comes into the worll 
through sin, into life, that eternal life which is the gift 
of God, and is man's highest blessedness. 

No b i ing that ever appeared among men has so 
molded the thought and the activity of men, and so 
affected their destiny, as Christ, and in this respect His 
work is not finished. During the ages to come, the 
multitude of years yet remaining to men on the earth 
the work of Christ will produce manifold richer and mor 
precious results than earth has yet seen or felt. An 
although Christ's visible presence is not now with th 
Church, we may not think He has ceased to work fo 
them. In the spiritual world, as well as in the material 
the things that are seen are temporal, while the unsee 
arc the eternal and mighty forces. We arc told tha 
God, the divine power, is in Christ — that is, by Hi™ 
and through Him reconciling the world unto Himself, 
to the divine power. This reconciling work of Christ i 
by no means limited to those who have His Word. H 
is reconciling the world unto God, by all the influences 
that He can bring to bear on minds in all stages of 
culture. 

Christ is the resurrection and the life. Exactly what 
this resurrection is may not be known to men yet. It 
seems to be a condition of enjoying the highest future 
blessedness, to all who obey Christ. When, therefore 
we speak of Christ, we mean God revealed in some im- 
portant sense to men, revealed as Savior — that Savio: 
whose great aim is to save men from sin, to secure obedi- 
ence and a full pardon of all past sin. This is the most 
precious view of God that men Avho have sinned can 
have. God made known in the Avonders of creation is 



JESUS CHEIST. 



547 



glorious in power; but God revealed in the suffering, 
self-sacrificing work of saving men and taking each sink- 
ing one by the hand and lifting him out of the power 
and defilement of sin and making him a redeemed soul, 
an heir of God to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away, is surpassingly glorious. Such 
is Jesus Christ — God revealed in union with man, work- 
ing to save men from sin and wretchedness. 

We have seen that Christ — the Word of John — is that 
Being by which God reveals Himself. He came to mani- 
fest the Father. God, as the infinite power, is invisibles 
"No man hath at any time seen the Father." Only as 
we see the Son do we see the Father. If, now, we look 
at Christ through eyes enlightened by revelation and 
science, we behold Him working for the good of beings, 
and largely for human good. Faintly we discern in the 
dim distance a beginning — a beginning of creation — God 
affecting the universe. This was the work of Christ, for 
by Him God made the world ; and then the scenes of 
creation pass before us. Finally, in fullness of time man 
appears, and we learn that man possesses more impor- 
tance in God's sight than do all the luminous orbs that 
glorify the day and beautify the night. God is mindful 
of men, and visits the sons of men. Largely for their 
sake had Christ been working in fashioning the world 
through the ages. 

By and by men are raised up who were inspired. 
They were assisted by God to help men into a higher 
and better life. Moses brings up from Egypt a people 
redeemed; receives on the awful summit of Sinai a law, 
by keeping which this nation might live — be blessed. 
Abraham before this had been thus assisted by Melchize- 
dek, a priest of the most high God. In the process of 



548 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



time Jesus was born. Wc have noticed His peculiari- 
ties, lie came to save men by revealing to them the 
Father, and showing them what love is, the doing of 
seen duty, and helping men in the exercise of this love, 
by which they become sons of God; for "every one that 
loveth is begottep of God and knowcth God." 

It would seem that the work of Christ during the 
long past was preparatory to this work of saving men, 
in which work His coming into the world and His death 
have so much power. We hear Him say: "And I, if I be 
lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." This work being 
finished, He ascended to heaven, and is now working to 
save men by His Word, by the Holy Spirit — God work 
ing in an invisible, and yet universal manner, on all 
men everywhere, and by His own helping influence, at 
the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. 
Jesus is the power of God unto salvation. This powe 
is spreading on every side, and becoming more and mor 
efficient. All that infinite love and power can do to help 
men Jesus is doing and will do through the future for 
men in this world, and in any other, wherever man 
may be. 

We claim not to know all that Christ can do for men 
in this world or the next, but we are certain that that 
Being who, with such skill and perseverance, has wrough 
through the past for human good, will never cease to do 
all He can to bless our race, and pour upon us the full- 
ness of the love of God — that life everlasting which is 
man's supreme good. 



PRAYER. 



549 



ANY blessings are promised us on the condi- 
tion of our asking for them, thus making prayer 
an important privilege as well as duty. Such 
promises as "Ask and it shall be given unto 
you," and such statements as "Ye receive not because 
ye ask not," show the importance of prayer to each 
human soul. Between the humble and contrite heart 
and the Majesty of heaven there are no barriers. The 
only pass-word is prayer. When we notice the number 
of prayers that are made, and the little that seems to 
result from them, we are sometimes constrained to ask, 
"Have we mistaken the promises concerning prayer? 
or have we disregarded the condition of acceptable 
prayer?" These are most important queries. Let us 
examine them more attentively. 

What is prayer? We do not mean by prayer re- 
quests which we ask of persons, such as a child from his 
parents, a man of his neighbor or friend, or citizens of a 
government. In these acts there is no religious element. 
Prayer is a request presented to God, and to Him only. 
It is not a request presented to angels, saints, martyrs, 
or to any person or power other than God. Were we 
sure angels could hear us, and had power to grant re- 
quests, it might not be out of place to ask of them favors ; 
but this would not be prayer. We may pray " in the 
name of Christ," but it is not known exactly what this 
expression means. Perhaps it means that we ask God's 




ooO 



THE BIBLE COMPAXIOX. 



blessing on the condition that we are Christ's obedient 
followers. This is, at any rate, a Bible reason for ex- 
pecting tilings asked for. We read: "Whatever we asl 
we receive of Him, because we keep His commandment 
and do the things pleasing in His sight." 1 Christ tells 
us : " For the Father Himself loveth you, because y 
have loved Me, and have believed that I came fort' 
from the Father." 2 In this verse the word which w 
translate by "loveth" and "have loved" is one Avhic 
expresses friendship, so the meaning is, if we are friend 
of Christ, then is Grod, the Father, our friend; and this 
is evidence that we are in a right moral state, and this 
is a condition of receiving what we pray for. So that to 
pray "in the name of Christ" is probably to pray while 
we are really of the household of Christ, belonging to 
Him, keeping His commandments. 

Some have thought this expression means "forth 
sake of Christ," or, in other words, that we should ask 
for answers to our prayers on account of what Christ 
suffered for us. The fact is, while the duty or privilege 
of praying in Christ's name is several times stated, it is 
nowhere stated in the Scriptures that God does anything 
for men "for Christ's sake." It is, indeed, true that St. 
Paul says, " God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you," 3 
but the new version better expresses the meaning by 
saying. " God, also, in Christ forgave you." The mean- 
ing would be still better expressed by using " by," or 
"through." Christ is the agent that forgives. He had 
the right to forgive sins on the earth. We read : " The 
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judg- 
ment unto the Son." God forgives men by Christ, not 
for His sake. We sometimes urge as a reason why men 

1 1 John, hi, 22. 2 John xvi, 27. "Ephesians iv, 32. 



PRAYER. 



551 



should bestow favors on us the fact that we are ac- 
quainted with some one that they know, or that we sus- 
tain confidential relations to him, or that he gives us his 
name as an indorsement of us. This is proper, because 
those of whom Ave ask the favor are not acquainted with 
us, but they are with the one in whose name we ask the 
favor. No such thing can be true of God, for He knows 
us fully. We feel quite sure that to ask in Christ's 
name is to ask in our relations to Him, the relations we 
sustain to His person and character, or "because we 
keep His commandments, and do those things that are 
pleasing in His sight." 

Prayer is asking God for things we want, and which 
we assume He wishes us to have. We ought never to 
pray for what we do not wish to receive. Neither ought 
Ave to pray for what we are not willing to receive on 
God's own terms. We must be willing to meet all the 
conditions known to us to be necessary for receiving the 
blessing before praying for it. When Ave pray for any 
virtue, we should cultivate the virtue as well as pray for 
it. When Ave humbly pray for material blessings, we 
should pray with earnestness, as those Avho expect eA^ery- 
thing from God, but act with energy, as those Avho ex- 
pect eA r erything from their OAvn efforts. In all accept- 
able prayers the praying one fulfills his own prayers so 
far as he sees he can. One who prays for daily bread 
does not sit idly doAvn and do nothing, Avhen he sees 
something he can do to supply his Avants. He Avho asks 
God to forgive his sins must also do what God requires 
of him, that he may be forgiven. 

We do not expect in prayer to inform God as to 
our needs. Our "Father knoweth what things Ave are 
in need of before we ask Him;" yet it is sometimes 



THE KIBLK COMPANION. 



proper to express our needs, so as to feel them more 
sensibly ourselves. It is for the sake of man, not of 
God, that prayer is required. It is not that God may 
be rendered more gracious, but that man may be made 
better, that he may be confirmed in a proper sense of 
his dependent state, and acquire those pious and virtu- 
ous dispositions in which his highest improvement con- 
sists. Nor should we think by our prayers to render 
God willing to do what He is not disposed .to. Only 
this is true: prayer may be a condition on which God 
may will to bestow blessings. Parents may properly 
give their children favors when they ask for them that 
they otherwise would not have bestowed. So prayer is 
often a condition of receiving, not that it changes God's 
feelings or purposes, but it is a change on the part of 
those who pray. Prayers, though they can not make 
the Deity more willing to give, will, and must, make the 
suppliant more worthy to receive. 

All proper prayer is not dictatorial, but is askin, 
for certain blessings if it be best, or if it be God's goo 
pleasure to bestow them. Christ, when lie prayed tha 
the cup might pass from Him so that He need not drink, 
said : " Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done." 
This condition is expressed or implied in all righ 
prayers. Such prayers are always answered — not alway 
in the way we think is best, but in God's way ; and that 
way we ask for, and not in our way r , when it is not best. 
We, ignorant of ourselves, may ask in prayer for what 
would be to our injury, which the Father denies us for 
our own good — so we find profit by losing of our prayers ; 
or we may even pray for trifles, without so much as a 
thought of the greatest blessings. And, with sorrow b 
it said, we are not ashamed many times to ask God fo 



PRAYER. 



553 



that which we should blush to own to our neighbors. It 
is by reason of the worthlessness of so many of our peti- 
tions that they remain unanswered. Good prayers never 
come creeping home. We are sure we shall receive 
either what we ask or what we should ask. 

There is one class of prayers that should be noticed, 
prayers that one person may make for others. Chris- 
tians are often asked to pray for others. Our Savior 
said, "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you 
another Comforter." And in another place He says, "I 
pray for them." Now, it it may be questioned, if prayer 
does not change God, why did Christ pray the Father 
for the coming of the Comforter, and why did He pray 
for His disciples, and why should Christians pray for 
others besides themselves? Though the effect of prayer 
is largely to impress the one praying with a sense of 
his dependence, yet the mere knowledge that others, feel- 
ing our needs, are praying for us, affects us deeply. An 
absent child, who knows that father and mother are 
praying for him, is often deeply influenced by this 
knowledge. Many a husband has born in him desires 
for a better life because he knows a faithful wife is pray- 
ing for him. We are not without instances where 
parents themselves have been so deeply affected by the 
prayers of an innocent child that they thenceforth led a 
new life. The direction given by James as to prayers 
for the sick, and the brethren one for another, 1 pre- 
suppose the meeting of certain conditions, and a knowl- 
edge of such prayers on the part of the person prayed 
for. This can not fail to bring his mind into such a 
state that the blessing might be given. 

Still, we have the practice of asking prayers for 

1 James v, 14^16. 
33 



554 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



persons who are not supposed to know that any one is 
praying for them. Our knowledge is too limited to say 
much on this point. We must not forget that God is 
love, and will always do what he well can to secure the 
best go >d of an individual. As we have said, prayer \m\\ 
be a condition of receiving this good; but, to our human 
understanding, we can scarcely see why one person's good 
should he conditioned on some one else's prayer. JStill, 
prayer for absent or sick persons will affect our own 
state of mind, and we know not how much, or to across 
what distances, one mind may influence another. For 
the most part we should pray rather in aspiration than 
petition, rather hoping than requesting, in which spirit 
wo may breathe out a devout wish for a blessing on 
others upon occasions when it might be presumptuous 

to beg it. 

Much is said in some places about the prayer of faith, 
and the duty of praying in faith, and the privilege of 
this exercise. The word faith is here used in an unusual 
and peculiar sense. In its common meaning, all accepta- 
ble prayer is that of faith. Faith is fundamentally, and 
according to the law of language, faithfulness. In the 
Old Testament the Hebrew word faith means this, and 
is usually so translated; sometimes, however, the word 
truth is used, but in these cases it should have been 
faithfulness. 1 The Greek translators of the Old Testa- 
ment translated this Hebrew word, meaning faithfulness, 
by the same Greek word that the writers of the New 
Testament use for the word we call faith. As the 
writers of the Xew Testament were acquainted with this 
Greek translation, and used Greek words in the same 
sense that they did, we must conclude that our word 

1 Gesenius on " Emunah." Young on " Faith." 



PRAYER. 



555 



faith means, as it did in Hebrew, faithfulness. But faith- 
fulness means doing all that we are required to do in 
the position in which we are placed. Both Paul and 
James, in their writings, make it plain that this was their 
understanding of faith. Paul emphasizes the fact that 
faith without love is of no account, and he explains that 
"love is the fulfilling of the law;" that is, doing all that 
ought to be done. In other words, faith without faith- 
fulness is nothing. James insists that faith without 
works is barren and dead. He uses the word works 
obviously in the same sense as Paul uses the word love] 
that is, doing all that ought to be done, all that under 
the circumstances duty requires. But we have already 
stated that, in all true prayer, the person praying is 
willing to do all that he ought to do on his part to 
make the blessing possible; so we see that all true 
prayer is the prayer of faith. 

There is, however, another meaning to this ex- 
pression. The Bible says the prayer of faith shall heal 
the sick. There is another verse which, by some, is 
thought to teach that we can have whatsoever we pray 
for if we only believe that we shall, and that we can and 
ought to believe. Does not the Bible say, "What things 
soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive 
them, and ye shall have tfAero?" 1 The new version 
slightly changes this reading, but the sense is the same. 
Now our best scholars, men who have made prayerful 
study of these expressions, are not agreed as to what we 
are to understand by them. Some, taking them literally, 
think it possible to cure sickness by the prayer of faith. 
Doubtless all are familiar with, or have read of, such 
instances. We know not what to say to all of these 

1 Mark xi, 24. 



556 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



cases. We would have every one satisfied in his own 
mind, but we would offer a few suggestions. 

We think the prayer of faith is one that can not be 
offered, even by good men, at their own will. If they 
could offer it, why did not the apostles, and why do not 
Christians, generally, offer it, and thus secure the salva- 
tion of all men, heal all diseases, and drive sickness and 
sorrow Prom the land? We think it can only be offered 
when there is an impression made by the Spirit that 
God is pleased to do something, and they are moved to 
ask for it with an assurance that it will be done; and 
unless this assurance is given men can not have it so as 
to secure the blessing. In this light we would explain 
the verse quoted from Mark. The word them is not in 
the original. We think it wrongly supplied. The word 
receive should be received. There is no doubt at all on 
this point. 3 We would adopt a part of the new version 
and read, "What things soever ye pray and ask for, 
believe that ye received, and ye shall have them;" that 
is, it shall be unto you according to the impression given 
you by the Spirit. 

Every one who has prayed much will understand 
this feeling. Persons praying for the life of a sick per- 
son sometimes have the impression that the sick one 
will get well, and, sometimes, they receive no such an 
assurance. We are told of* a person eminent in prayer 2 
that he was accustomed to take down the names of some 
for whom he was in the habit of praying. Sometimes, 
in reference to certain individuals, he felt no liberty to 
pray for them. He had an impression the case was 
hopeless. But, in other cases, he felt sometimes an 
assurance that the person either was or would be con- 

1 It is in the aorist tense. 2 Father Nash in "Finney's Autobiography." 



PRAYER. 



557 



verted, in which case the name was dropped, and always 
the individual was soon brought into the fold. We 
would not, however, understand that such conversion 
was because of his prayers. It was simply an assurance 
from the Spirit that such would be the ultimate result. 
The causes bringing it about may have been at work a 
long time. Two especial conditions are to be observed. 
In the first place, we can not have this faith or assurance 
except it is given by God as an earnest of what will 
come to pass. In the second place, there is the danger 
of our taking our strong desires for a blessing, for the 
divine assurance that the same is to be granted. Even 
good men are liable to mistakes in this direction. 

The importance of prayer, in its effects on those who 
offer it, is very great, and almost wholly beneficial. 
Were there no other results, prayer would be a great 
privilege and an important duty. When we see what 
man is, his ignorance, his helplessness, or, more properly, 
his need of help, and think what God is — a being of 
such infinite resources, and so kindly disposed, and so 
ready to help, surely prayer is a most natural exercise. 
The mere fact of praying fixes our minds on what we 
need, and helps us to feel these needs more keenly. 
Then, somehow, it brings us near to God. We feel 
His presence and know His power. A. religion that, 
in a sense, localizes God, as Judaism does at Jeru- 
salem, and Mohammedanism at Mecca, required the Jew 
to pray with his face towards Jerusalem, the Mussul- 
man with his towards Mecca. But Christianity recog- 
nizes the presence and power of God everywhere, and 
all places as holy ground. " A good man's prayer will, 
from the deepest dungeon, climb heaven's height, and 
bring a blessing down. Our prayers and God's mercy 



558 



THE BIBLE COMPANION 1 . 



are like two buckets in a well — while one ascends, the 
other descends." 

"There can be no set form in which a prayer shall be 
made. Perfect prayer, without a spot or blemish, though 
not a word be spoken, and no phrases known to man- 
kind be uttered, always plucks the heart out of the 
earth, and moves it softly, like a censor, to and fro, 
beneath the face of heaven. Prayer is not eloquence, 
but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but 
the feeling it; not figures of speech, but compunction of 
soul : not gifts, but graces prevail in prayer. God 
regards not the length of our prayers, nor the number of 
them, nor the language in which they are expressed, 
nor the force of the arguments used, but rather the 
divinity of them — how heart-sprung they are. The very 
cry of distress is an involuntary appeal to that invisible 
power whose aid the soul invokes." 

"The custom of having family prayers is held in 
honor wherever there is real Christian life; and it is the 
one thing which, more than any other, knits together 
the loose threads of a home, and unites its various mem- 
bers before God. The religious service in which parents, 
children, and friends join in praise and prayer, is at once 
an acknowledgment of dependence on the Heavenly 
Father, and a renewal of consecration to His work in 
the world. The Bible is read, the hymn is sung, the 
petition is offered, and, unless all has been done as a 
mere formality and without hearty assent, those who 
have gathered at the family altar leave it helped, 
soothed, strengthened, and armored as they were not 
before they met there." 



RELIGION. 



561 



FjELIGION.i 

HERE is religion in everything around us, a 
calm and holy religion in the unbreathing 
things of nature, which man would do well to 
imitate. It is a meek and blessed influence, 
stealing in, as it were, unawares upon the heart; it 
comes quietly and without excitement ; it has no ter- 
ror, no gloom in its approaches ; it does not rouse up 
the passions ; it is untrammeled by the Creeds, and 
unshadowed by the superstitions of man ; it is fresh from 
the hands of its author, glowing from the immediate 
presence of the Great Spirit, which pervades and 
quickens it. 

It is written on the arched sky ; it looks out from 
every star; it is on the sailing cloud and in the in- 
visible wind ; it is among the hills and valle} 7 s of the 
earth, where the shrubless mountain-top pierces the thin 
atmosphere of eternal winter, or where the mighty 
forest fluctuates before the strong wind with its dark 
waves of green foliage ; it is spread out, like a legible 
language, upon the broad face of the sleeping ocean ; it 
is the poetry of nature ; it is this which uplifts the 
spirit within us until it is strong enough to overlook 
the shadows of our place of probation, which breaks, link 
after link, the chain that binds us to materiality, and 
which opens to our imagination a world of spiritual 
beauty and holiness. 

1 See Preface in regard to this and succeeding essays. 





562 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Religion is the human mind standing in reverence 
and inspiration before the infinite energy of the universe, 
asking to be lifted into it. It is not confined to cells 
and closets, nor restrained to sullen retirement. It is 
the vital part of every question. Directly, it may de- 
termine nothing; indirectly, it conditions every problem 
that can arise. It finds the love of happiness and the 
principle of duty separated in us; and its mission — its 
masterpiece — is to reunite them. It tends to the ease 
and pleasure, the peace and tranquillity of our minds, 
which all the wisdom of the world did always aim at, 
as the utmost felicity of this life. 

Man has interests other than those that arc material; 
he has aspirations that sweep beyond time and this 
world, lie is more than his body; he is greater than 
his life ; he has a vision that is not of the eye ; he has 
within a "still small voice" that compels attention now 
and then. We are apt to forget these things in this 
whirling age and country. Most of us are utterly im- 
mersed in worldly pursuits, and wholly occupied with 
selfish struggles, so that the moral part of our nature is 
wholly neglected. We must not undervalue the necessi- 
ties of the hour. It is proper that the work of the day 
should be done manfully, that the battle of life should 
he fought with resolution. People should try and im- 
prove their material fortunes. But still there is some- 
thing else that must not be overlooked. There is a 
moral nature, the neglect of which is moral death. 

Religion, on account of its intimate relation to a 
future state, is every man's proper business, and should 
be his chief care. Of knowledge in general, there are 
branches which it would be preposterous to the bulk of 
mankind to attempt to acquire, because they have no 



RELIGION. 



563 



immediate connection with their duties, and demand 
talents which nature has denied, or opportunities which 
Providence has withheld. But with respect to the 
primary truths of religion, the case is different ; they are 
of such daily use and necessity that they form, not the 
materials of mental luxury, so properly as the food of 
the mind. In influencing the character, the influence of 
general knowledge is often feeble and always indirect ; 
of religious knowledge, the tendency to purify the heart 
is immediate, and forms its professed scope and design. 

To have the light of heaven upon our faces in all the 
dark hours of trial and trouble, we must have heaven's 
peace in our hearts. There will be no need of pretend- 
ing cheerfulness, or of seeking pleasure in a mere round 
of amusement, when once the soul is possessed by the 
pure peace afforded by religion. The message of the 
gospel is God's way of peace for man. Religion is given 
us to make us happy here and happy hereafter. There 
is indeed much gloom and despondency among Christians ; 
but their religion does not make them unhappy. There 
are some things hard to be understood in the Bible; but 
there are still greater and more awful mysteries in the 
world without the Bible. If all would enter God's way 
of peace, and accept his offered rest, the happy change 
would shed light upon a troubled sea of sad faces, and 
lift the heaviest weight from a world of weary hearts. 

When the pulse beats high and we are flushed with 
youth and health and vigor ; when all goes on prosper- 
ously, and success seems almost to anticipate our wishes, 
then we feel not the want of the consolation of religion ; 
but when fortune frowns or friends forsake us, when sor- 
rows or sickness or old age comes upon us, then it is 
that the superiority of the pleasures of religion is estab- 



.564 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



lished over those of dissipation and vanity, which are 
ever apt to fly from us when we are most in want of 
their aid. There is scarcely a more melancholy sight 
than an old man who is a stranger to the only true 
source of satisfaction. A religious hope does not only 
hear up the mind under sufferings, but makes her rejoice 
in them. 

The hope of a religious man is more sure and certain 
than the hope of any temporal blessing, since it is 
strengthened not only by reason, but by faith. Religious 
hope has likewise this advantage, above any other kind 
of hope, that it is able to revive the dying man, and to 
till his mind not only with secret comfort and refresh- 
ment, but sometimes with rapture and transport. He 
triumphs in his agonies, whilst the soul springs forward 
with delight to the great object which she has always 
had in view. The truly Christian man can, with calm- 
ness, observe the autumn of his existence. The more 
sand has passed through the hour-glass of life, the more 
clearly can he gaze into the great beyond. Earth is 
indeed a beloved spot, but he looks forward, with a 
bright and cheerful hope, to a home beyond the sky. 

Religion was not given to be the amusement of an 
idle hour, the food of mere imagination, a story well 
told, or as a song of one that hath a pleasant voice. It 
is intended to be the guide, the guardian, the companion 
of all hours ; it is intended to be the food of our immortal 
spirits ; it is intended to be the serious occupation of our 
whole existence. Those who represent religion as some- 
thing destitute of all joy are like the spies sent by Moses 
to view the promised land, and who, by their reports, 
prevented the people from entering it. But those who 
show us the joy, the cheerfulness, the good humor, that 



RELIGION. 



565 



naturally springs up in that happy state, are like the 
spies bringing along with them the clusters of grapes and 
delicious fruits that might invite their companions into 
the pleasant country which produced them. 

It is the property of the religious spirit to be the 
mosfr refining of all influences. No external advantages, 
no culture of the taste, no habit of command, no asso- 
ciation with the elegant, or even depths of affection, can 
bestow that delicacy and that grandeur of bearing which 
belong only to the mind accustomed to celestial conver- 
sation. All else is but gilt and cosmetics beside this, as 
expressed in every look and gesture. The Christian 
religion, rightly understood, is the deepest and choicest 
piece of philosophy that is. In some respects it is like 
a grand cathedral, with divinely pictured windows. 
Standing without, you may see no glory, but standing 
within, every ray of light reveals a harmony of unspeak- 
able influences. 

All the rich treasures of the past are appropriated 
by Christianity — the moral culture of the Hebrews, the 
poetry and philosophy of Greece, the jurisprudence of 
Rome ; all these, in so far as they are pure and good, 
are absorbed by Christianity, and ennobled and baptized 
by the Christian spirit. In Christian Europe, poetry, 
philosophy, science, flourish as they never flourished in 
any preceding age, and they lay their richest tribute at 
the feet of Christ, the divine King of the world. Chris- 
tianity is strong in its unity, strong in its simplicity, 
strong in its splendid literature, strong in its mingled 
law and grace, its restriction and its liberty; strong in 
its store of confessed truth, strong in the sublimity of its 
proposed, aims and purposes ; strong in the accord of its 
facts and doctrines with nature and experience. 



5GG 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Christianity has been in the world eighteen hundred 
years. It lias proved itself mightier than all the powers 
of the earth. It is the source of life and permanency to 
the most advanced and progressive nations. It has 
brought light into thousands of dark homes, and peace 
into millions of wretched hearts. It is strong in its 
adaptation of the world, which it has created and fos- 
tered ; strong in the character of its disciples, and in the 
number and ability "of its professors and defenders; 
strong in its superiority to all other religions; strong in 
its miracles, prophecies, and apocalypses. 

Christianity now stirs men's thoughts more than ever. 
It has projected itself into the civilization of the age 
with the fixedness with which a continent thrusts itself 
into the sea; and the reason of this is plain. It is be- 
cause it has proved itself to be the only hope of the 
world. It gives to man a cheering hope of an immortal 
existence, and a Savior adapted to his wants, and able 
and willing to save him. Millions of stricken hearts has 
it cheered, bright and joyous has been the light which 
it has thrown over the pathway of many a bewildered 
lit''', a inl daring, indeed, is the tongue which would will- 
fully revile or blaspheme it. 

Harm is done by everything which tends to vulgar- 
ize religion, for it is the highest and most solemn con- 
cern of man. Anything like an adequate conception 
of God will inspire a religious assembly and a preacher 
with profound awe. Everything that savors of levity or 
flippancy in connection with this subject ought to excite 
the deepest repugnance. The intrusion of low wit into 
the teachings of religion is unspeakably disgusting to a 
reverent mind. 

The greatest religious teachers do not always take 



RELIGION. 



567 



their rise from the midst of propitious surroundings, but 
on the hill-side, in the wilderness, amidst manifold disad- 
vantages, when the soul is thrown upon itself, a few 
kindred spirits, and God. From such surroundings 
grow up the heroes of faith. Religion is often the most 
beautiful and sustaining in the humble, obscure walks of 
life, where, serving the Master with a quiet and con- 
tented mind, very many put more honor on the gospel 
than do those whose names are heralded to the world. 

The forms under which religion is professed may 
decay, for they, like all that is the work of man's hands, 
are subjected to the changes and chances of mortal 
being, but the spirit of truth is incorruptible ; it may be 
developed, illustrated, and applied — it can never die, it 
never can decline. No truth can perish ; no truth can 
pass away. The flame is undying, though generations 
disappear. Wherever moral truth has started into 
being, humanity claims and guards the bequest. Each 
generation gathers together the imperishable children of 
the past, and increases them by the new sons of the 
light, alike radiant and immortal. 

Whatever tends to abase the majesty of religion, and 
invests the Word of God and the truths of the gospel 
with mean and vulgar associations, is not only revolting 
in itself, but is baneful in its influences. How plain and 
simple are the teachings of Christ! a child can under- 
stand Him ; yet the New Testament is in the highest 
style of thought. There is nothing low, nothing gro- 
tesque. The man who believes there is no God, no im- 
mortality, and that when he dies he will melt into the 
earth, to be seen no more, like the snow-flake sinking 
into the ocean, certainly wants one of the most powerful 
stimulants to intellectual and moral advancement. 



568 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Weary human nature lays its hand on the bosom of 
the Divine Word, or it has nowhere to lay its head. 
Tremblers, on the verge of the dark and terrible valley 
which parts the land of the living from the untried here- 
after, take this hand of human tenderness, yet of God* 
like strength, or they totter into the gloom without stop 
or stay. They who look their last look upon the beloved 
dead listen to this voice of soothing and peace, or else 
death is no uplifting of everlasting doors and no infold- 
ing arms, but is rather an ending appalling to the rea- 
son and the senses. 

Religion is not a thing fitted only for Sundays, or 
the occasional events of life; it enters into all the affairs 
of life. Any such thoughts of the things unseen and 
eternal as shall unfit a man for his daily secular duties, 
or teach him to despise them, are wrong thoughts, and 
should be discarded. Religion underlies all things. 
It concerns the every-day affairs of men. It is 
intended to fit a man for life — to teach him how to 
cany himself in his business, his pleasures, and his 
pains, as much as to aid him when he dies. It was not 
meant to lift him out of or beyond the common work or 
wants of life Until life is passed. 

Christian graces are natural faculties which have 
blossomed under the influence of divine love. The gar- 
dener has often to cut and prune to bring his plants to 
their highest perfection, flow often do we observe that, 
under the chastening influence of sorrow and earthly 
discipline, the Christian graces come to their best per- 
fection? Christians, like sweet-scented flowers, are of 
two kinds. One kind, as the violet, are ever giving off 
their life to all around, pouring their exquisite breath 
generously, unceasingly forth, whether there be any to 



RELIGION. 



569 



inhale it or not. The other are inodorous unless shaken 
or pinched; then they are delicious. 

It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to 
talk about it. We are told to let our light shine. If it 
does, we need not exert ourselves to inform others. The 
light will be its own witness. Light-houses do not ring- 
bells, or fire cannons, to call attention to their shining — 
they simply shine. Christians should be as a flower- 
store. The odor of sanctity should betray them wher- 
ever they are; not that they should go about obtruding 
themselves and their actions on others with the cant of 
usefulness, but that they should live the purity and joy 
of religion, so that men might see the desirableness of 
it, both for the sake of nobleness and for the enjoyment 
of this world and that which is to come. 

Christianity is mixed up with our being and our 
daily life. There is not a familiar object around us 
which does not wear a different aspect because the light 
of Christian love is on it; not a law which does not 
owe its truth and gentleness to Christianity ; not a cus- 
tom which can not be traced, in all its holy, healthful 
parts, to the gospel. Christianity forbids no necessary 
occupations, no reasonable indulgences, no innocent 
relations. It allows us to use the world, provided we 
do not abuse it. It does not spread before us a delicious 
banquet, and then forbid us to enjoy it. 

All it requires is, that our liberty degenerate not 
into licentiousness, our amusements into dissipation, our 
industry into incessant toil, our carefulness into extreme 
anxiety and endless solicitude. So far from forbidding 
us to engage in business, it expressly commands us not 
to be slothful in it, and to labor with our hands for the 
things that are needful. It enjoins every one to abide 



570 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



in the calling wherein he was called, and to perform all 
the duties of it. It even condemns those who provide 
not for their own. Humanity has reached its noblest 
thrift, its grandest altitude of excellence, through the 
sweet, yet all-controlling, influence of Christianity. 

Religion is the final center of repose, the goal to 
which all things tend. It gives to time all its impor- 
tance, to eternity all its glory. Apart from it man is a 
shallow, his very existence a riddle, and the stupendous 
scenes which surround him are as incoherent and un- 
meaning as the leaves which the Sibyl scattered in the 
wind. The duties of religion, sincerely and regularly 
performed, will always he sufficient to exalt the meanest 
and to exercise the highest understanding. That mind 
will never be vacant which is frequently recalled by 
stated duties to meditate on eternal interests, nor can 
any hour be long which is spent in obtaining some new 
qualiiication for celestial happiness. 

" Drink deep, or taste not," is a direction fully as 
applicable to religion, if we would find it a source of 
pleasure, as it is to knowledge. A little religion is 
often apt to make men gloomy, as a little knowledge is 
to render them vain. This is the source of those unjust 
accusations brought against religion by the conduct of 
those whose religion is just sufficient, by condemning 
their course of action, to render them uneasy, enough 
merely to impair the sweetness of sin. By this means 
men bring up an ill report, as it were, of the Land of 
Promise, which, in truth, abounds with whatever, in our 
journey through life, can best refresh and strengthen us. 



LIFE. 



571 



UMAN life is .a subject which we all delight 
to contemplate. It is, alas! to be feared that 
few of us sum the matter up aright. It is 
brief — even the longest one is as a tale that 
is told ; but, in general, we are constantly wishing every 
period of it at an end. The minor longs to be of age ; 
then to be a man of business ; then to make up an 
estate ; then to arrive at honors ; then to retire ; and 
death soon closes the scene-shifting. It is full of great 
responsibilities. No one ever yet lived to himself alone; 
and the influence we exert day by day over the lives of 
others will endure throughout all eternity. It is full of 
great possibilities. In general, man has only himself to 
blame if his life, at times, seems void of interest and 
pleasures. We may make life what we please, and give 
it as much worth, both for ourselves and others, as we 
have energy for. Over our moral and intellectual being 
our sway is complete. 

The mere lapse of years is not life, it is simply exist- 
ence. To eat, and drink, and sleep ; to be exposed to 
darkness and the light; to face around in the mill of 
habit, and turn thought into an implement of trade — 
this is not life. In all this but a fraction of our powers 
is employed. The moral and intellectual parts which 
make it worth while to be may slumber. Knowledge, 
truth, love, beauty, goodness, faith — these alone awaken 
the full chords from this harp of a thousand strings. 

34 




572 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



The laugh of mirth that vibrates through the heart ; the 
tears that freshen the dry wastes within; the music that 
brings childhood back ; the prayer that brings the future 
near; the doubt that makes us meditate; the death which 
startles us with mystery; the hardship that forces us to 
Struggle; the anxiety that ends in trust — these makeup 
the many elements of life. 

Life is not entirely made up of great evils, or heavy 
trials; but presents us with the perpetual recurrence of 
small evils, petty vexations, in the due performance of 
which the true qualities of manhood, or womanhood, are 
brought to perfection. To bear with the failings of those 
about us, with their infirmities, their bad judgment, 
their ill-breeding, their perverse tempers; to endure 
neglect when we feel that we deserve attention, and in- 
gratitude when we expect thanks — these are exercises of 
patience and self-denial, all the better because not chosen 
by ourselves. It is the great art and philosophy of life 
to make the best of the present, whether it be good or 
bid; and to bear the one with resignation and patience, 
and to enjoy the other with thankfulness and moderation. 

Life has been compared to many things; oftcnest, per-* 
haps, to a river, down which we voyage in a boat. At 
first we glide down the narrow channel, through the play- 
ful murmurings of the little brook, and the winding of the 
grassy borders. The trees shed their blossoms over our 
young heads, the flowers on the brink seem to offer them- 
selves to our young hands; we are happy in hope, and we 
grasp eagerly at the beauties around us ; but the stream 
hurries us on, and still our hands are empty. Our course 
m youth and manhood is along a wider and deeper flood, 
amid objects more striking and magnificent. We are 
animated at the moving pictures of enjoyment and indus- 



LIFE. 



try passing around us. We are excited at some short- 
lived disappointment. The stream hurries us on, and 
our joys and our griefs are alike left behind us. We 
may be shipwrecked ; we can not be delayed ; whether 
rough or smooth, the river hastens to its home. At 
length the roar of the ocean is in our ears, the tossing 
of the waves beneath our feet, the land lessens from our 
eyes, the floods are lifted up around us, and of our 
further voyage no mortal knows. The wind is always 
off-shore, and no boat ever returns. 

Or we may say that life is a battle. That this battle 
goes on forever between good and evil — good influences 
drawing us up toward the divine, bad influences draw- 
ing us down toward the brutes. Midway we stand, be- 
tween the divine and the brute. How to cultivate the 
good side of nature, is the greatest lesson to be learned 
in the school of human life. We lead two lives : the life 
within and the life without. The inside must be pure in 
the sight of God, the outside pure in the sight of man. 
Thus our life is a continual conflict against forces that 
never tire. We must keep a watch against foes that 
never sleep. We are beset by countless temptations ; and 
we must resist and put them down, or be overcome and 
destroyed ourselves. We are beset with cares and fears 
and anxieties, and we need something to keep us calm 
and collected amid the changes and agitations with which 
we are surrounded. We have a great work to do, and 
it will be a dreadful failure if we come to the close of 
life with our work undone. We are liable at any time 
to be called out of time into eternity, and to have our 
destiny fixed forever. 

It is said that life is given us for noble deeds ; how, 
then, shall we best improve it? It is not the chief end 



574 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



of man to achieve what the world regards as success. 
All can not become rich — some must toil and suffer in 
poverty. All can not become famous ; the great majority 
df us can never be known beyond the immediate circle 
of Our friends. But all of us can do whatever Providence 
has placed before us. And we can do this in such a way 
as lo help others. We are in the world to make the 
world better, to lift it up to a higher level of enjoyment 
and progress, to make the hearts and homes brighter 
and happier by devoting to our fellows our best thoughts 
and activities and influences. 

There was never a time in all the past when it was 
more in the power of individuals to make themselves 
felt in the world than now. The world never felt such 
throbs and thrills before. The hearts of men now harden 
or soften under the influence of truth quicker than ever; 
opinions are shaking, errors are falling, but truth is as- 
serting its power. We are lost in the whirl of the great 
agitations and stunned by the noise of conflicting ele- 
ments. What a grand thing it is to live at such a time 
as this, with the noise of the conflict all around! Let 
us then seize on the present, which is all we have. Let 
us grapple with its mysteries. Let us think of its re- 
sponsibilities. Let us ponder the thoughts of the inquir- 
ing minds of the past. Let us prize all the light we 
have, whether from God or from man, so we may be 
guided aright amid the perils and changes around us. 

Did you ever notice how, in great affairs of life, the 
proper individual is always raised up for the occasion? 
Sometimes there are wanted men of action whose silent 
and ceaseless energy is the voice with which they arouse 
and shake the nation. Sometimes there is the need of 
men with the courage of heroes and the faith of martyrs 



LIFE. 



575 



to hew down the thrones and temples of iniquity with the 
stroke of battle-axes, and to meet the armed force of wrong 
on the bloody field. Sometimes the world's great want is 
the embodiment of active benevolence, the incarnation of 
pity and humanity, to carry light into the dark homes of 
sorrow, to speak pardon and peace in the dens and dun- 
geons of vice and crime. Whatever the wants of any 
age, God is sure to find men to meet its demands. It 
should be our great study to know what work he has for 
us to do, and to do it well. 

A true man will lose no time in getting down to 
earnest work in life. We are not to seek for some easy 
passage through life. Our paths will lie amid rocks and 
crags, and not on lawns and among lilies; over precipi- 
tous mountains, not along the pleasant banks of winding- 
rivers. We shall never be able to put forth our best 
endeavors, the full measure of our strength, unless we _ 
struggle with and overcome opposition. We must take 
hold of the tough knots of life and try and untie them. 
Try and be worthy of man's high estate. Let every 
man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employ- 
ment of which his nature is capable. There will always 
remain to such an one the consciousness that he has 
done his best. But remember, always to struggle, and 
again and yet again to renew, is life's inheritance. 

Life is often a continual struggle after that which 
we can not take with us — riches. They are given 
to some, much as a nurse intrusts valued ornaments 
to a fretful child, to keep it quiet until it falls 
asleep. Then, from the helpless hand, the nurse gath- 
ers the ornament to please with it in turn some other 
child, and thus the round goes on. When the sleep of 
death falls on man, it matters not whether rich or poor, 



576 



THE BIBLE COMPANIOX. 



what possessions he has pass from his nerveless grasp 
into the control of others. Every one should consider 
that there are results that do not thus pass away. A 
life of usefulness and of honor, a sense of kindness to 
others, and a conscientious discharge of duty leads as 
surely to heaven's brightest gate as the sunbeam to the 
bosom of a flower. 

No one can set before him a higher aim than to be a 
true man, one determined to do right because it is 
right, one willing to take such measures of present 
happiness and success as results from obedience to truth. 
Think not these results are to be despised. There is a 
strength that begins with the very confession of weakness. 
There is a repose of soul which is reached only through 
conflicts ami through scars. There is a joy which springs 
from the deepest sorrow and suffering. The greatest 
lo3S which can come to man is the loss of willingness to 
do right, the loss of strength to resist temptation, the 
loss of faith in the everlasting principles of truth and 
duty. The poorest man in the world has something to 
hope, as long as he preserves the integrity of his own 
conscience. The earth is fringed and carpeted, not with 
forests, but with grasses. Only see to it that we have 
enough little virtues. If we have a desire to do the little 
duties we see before us, we need not mourn that we are 
neither a renowned hero nor a saint. 

Life, whether in this world or in any other, is the 
sum of our attainments, our experiences, and our char- 
acters. The course of life is a rugged diagonal between 
duty and desire. It lies through true manhood and 
womanhood; through true fatherhood and motherhood; 
through true friendship and relationship of all legitimate 
kinds,, of all natural sorts whatever. It lies through sor- 



LIFE. 



577 



row and pain and poverty, and all earthly discipline. It 
lies through unswerving trust in God and man. It lies 
through patient and self-denying heroism ; but he who 
walks therein is sure of a prize, if not in this world, then 
in the world to come. 

Reverses will come, for such is the order of life ; 
they approach unheralded and unbidden, like a summer's 
cloud. Life is full of enigmas. Many of its events seem 
anomalous. Disappointments must often arise, our plans 
be disarranged, our brightest prospects blighted. Hu- 
man ingenuity can not conjecture what the future will 
be. We have simply to await its developments and 
abide its issues, trusting in Him who is too wise to err, 
too good to be unkind. Patience and strength are what 
we need, with an earnest use of present advantages. The 
discipline of life is portioned out by no unloving hand. 
It is just what we need, although we may not always 
realize it. It is designed to make us strong and wise 
and humble. Bitter, indeed, are some of the draughts 
we drink ; but most tonics are bitter, and they do us 
good. 

We must prepare ourselves for the sorrows of life 
which are sure to come upon us. We can not hope to 
escape them ; they come to all alike. At times in our 
journey through life we may search for some long-sought 
position ; we may flatter ourselves with a season of long 
and secure repose. But how short is human happiness! 
Clouds will gather, gloom will settle down over us, and 
we will once more find ourselves looking forward for a 
happy period. The thing to do is to enjoy what we can 
of the present. The great happiness which we fondly 
imagine in store for us in the future partakes much of 
the nature of the mirage; it constantly recedes as we 



r>7.s 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



advance. Our only .safety is to resolutely turn our backs 
On the pleasing vision, and more earnestly pursue the 
path that we know will conduct to eternal happiness. 

Life will always be, to a large extent, what we our- 
selves make it. Each mind makes its own little world. 
The cheerful mind makes it pleasant, and the discon- 
tented mind makes it miserable. "My mind to me a 
kingdom is," applies alike to the peasant as to the mon- 
arch ; the one may be in his heart a king and the other 
may be a slave. Lite is, for the most part, the mirror 
of bur own individual selves. Our mind gives to all sit- 
uations, to all fortunes, high and low, their real charac- 
ters. To the good the world is good, to the bad it is bad. 
If our views of life be elevated, if we regard it as a 
sphere of useful effort, of high living and high thinking, 
of working for ethers' good as well as our own, it will be 
joyful, hopeful, and blessed. If, on the contrary, we re- 
gard it as affording opportunities for self-seeking, pleas- 
ure, and aggrandizement, it will be full of toil, anxiety, 
and disappointment. 

The crowning glory of man is the possession of intel- 
lectual and moral powers. The triumph of mind over 
matter is something grand to contemplate. Man has 
risen to his high position, not by strength — as an animal 
he is weak; not by length of years — many surpass him in 
this respect; not by tenacity of life — the universe need 
not rise in arms to crush him : a vapor, a drop of water, 
suffices to kill him. He has risen because he has learned 
to govern the forces of nature. How careful should we 
then be to train these faculties ! Let the nobleness of 
your mind impel you to its improvement. You are too 
strong to be defeated, save by yourself. Refuse to live 
merely to eat and sleep ! Brutes do this. But you are 



LIFE. 



579 



men ; therefore act the part of men. Do not waste time 
by wishing and dreaming, but go earnestly to work. 
There is always hope for a man that does this. In idle- 
ness alone is there despair. Advancement in this matter 
will not come for the wishing. Everything which is best 
worth possessing in this world is secured only by painful 
and costly effort. 

Remember always, there is an immortal part of our 
being. We were not created to live and die, as do the 
inferior animals, but we have been born for a higher 
and nobler state. We may be naturally desirous of leav- 
ing a blank at our death which the world can not fill ; 
yet to what does all this amount? Life is short at the 
longest — a moment compared to eternity. Then, when 
we are ambitious for the things pertaining to this life, 
let us not forget the great hereafter. 

It is somewhat pathetic how completely the youthful 
dreams of life are disappointed. We can all say this, 
even the most successful and apparently happy ones 
amongst us. Those whom the world would think of as 
having the most cause of rejoicing can reflect how differ- 
ent their life has been from what they once thought it 
would be. And, to the great majority of us, it is a sor- 
rowful thing to recall the dreams of long ago, and see 
how sadly we have failed of realizing them. When we 
were young and but just started on our course, how beau- 
tiful the distant hills looked in the morning sunlight; 
but how long, dusty, and wearisome has been our course 
toward those same hills, and how far distant they still 
are. And as the sun has higher risen, how much of 
their pleasant features they have lost ! It really matters 
but little whether we reach them or not. 

Is there any lesson to be learned from this? We 



580 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



think there is. Pass not by the flowers in the wayside 
for those in the distance. The kindly act, the pleasanl 
word, the friendly smile — how little they cost, how far 
they go! In smoothing others' paths we only smooth 
our own. We have not reached the eminence we de- 
sired — we have not accomplished what we would; but, 
in dismissing dreams, let us not dismiss hopes. In the 
faithful performance of every clay's duties we can still 
trust that lie who sees all will bring us at last to the 
fields of peace. 

Nature's works of rapid progress and decay are con- 
tinually reading us lessons on the shortness and vanity 
of human life. Shadows, vapors, changes, leaves, flowers, 
are all moral lectures. But, remember, 

" That life ifl long 
That answers life's great end." 

Life is measured by the soul's advance. It is measured 
by usefulness, not by years. Some live greatly more in 
an allotted time than others. He most lives who thinks 
most, and feels and acts the best. Let us, then, be 
faithful in the performance of our duty. And may life's 
short day glide on, peaceful and bright as can well be 
given to mortals, with no more clouds than enough to 
glisten in the air and temper the beams of the sun — 
with no more rain than enough to fling across the arch- 
ing heavens the many-hued bow ! And when in the 
bosom of the west the weary sun sinks to his rest, and 
darkness gathers about us, let us go, 

"Not like the galley-slave, scourged to hi.1 dungeon," 

but, relying on the promises of the Infinite One, wrap 
the mantle of faith about us, 

"And lie down to pleasant dreams." 



NOBLE LIVING. 



581 



HOBLB lilYING. 



VERY one, no matter how fallen he may be, 
has moments, at least, when he desires to win 
the approval of his own conscience and the 
good wishes of his fellow beings. It is true 
that some are so fallen that they seem lost to this senti- 
ment. But never believe that it is entirely dead in them. 
The most trivial events may serve to call it into action; 
the touch of a baby hand, the prattle of an innocent 
child, the humming of an old-time tune, the pleasant 
look, the kind act, and the friendly word may awaken 
it. But the better nature of us all is constantly striving 
with us in this matter. Such aspirations are not given 
us in vain. We can reach these results if we Avill. 

But this requires work and effort on our part. There 
are victories to be won more glorious than those of the 
historic fields of the world's conflict. There are evil 
habits to be subdued, passions to be brought under the 
control of principles, temptations to be resisted, and life 
itself to be consecrated to noble purposes. To triumph 
over the infirmities of perverted nature, and render a 
life given over to evil purposes resplendent with deeds 
of love and beneficence, is a more worthy aim than to 
aspire to many of those acts of martial courage which 
have served to place men's names on the roll of fame. 
Every day witnesses such triumphs as these, yet fame 
proclaims them not. What matters it? In the serene 
depths of these all-conquering spirits God's peace abides, 




5S2 



Til I', I5IP.LK COM l'A\ [ON. 



and harmonics are heard such as angels make when they 
welcome the victorious soul from the conflicts of this 
world to the raptures of the heavenly one. 

There is certainly no greater happiness than to be 
able to look back on a life usefully and nobly employed! 
to recognize in the past monuments of good acts, and not 
such as cause us shame and sorrow. Life, which has 
nothing in its history to distinguish one day from 
another, is to him who has passed it as if it had never 
been, except as he may be conscious that he has but 
illy used the talents given into his possession by the 
Creator. Life made memorable by crimes, and diversified 
throughout its several periods by wickedness, is, indeeil 
easily reviewed, but that review must always be accom- 
panied by remorse. The great question to be considered, 
in the proper use of the present, is the influence which 
it will exert upon time to come. The time of action 
may be very short, yet its effect will be unlimited. 
There is not the smallest point of time but may extend 
its consequences, either to our hurt or to our advantage, 
through all eternity, and give us reason to remember it 
forever, with anguish or exultation. 

We are to avoid alike an aimless life, and one with 
a low and sordid aim. A well-ascertained and generous 
purpose gives vigor, direction, and perseverance to all 
man's efforts. Its concomitants are a well-disciplined in- 
tellect, character, influence, tranquillity, and cheerfulness 
within — success and honor without. Whatever a man's 
talents may be, with no aim, or a low one, he is weak 
and despicable. But with a high aim, such an one as is 
worthy of a man in this day and age of the world, he 
will not fail of being respectable and influential. With- 
out some definite object before us, some standard which 



NOBLE LIVING. 



583 



we are earnestly striving to reach., we can not expect to 
attain to any great height, either mentally or morally. 

Placing for ourselves high standards, and wishing to 
reach them without any further effort on our part, is not 
enough to elevate us in any very great degree. We must 
lift up our heads and gird ourselves for brave and 
cheerful toil. In due time the reward will come, if we 
faint not. These rewards may not be riches or honor, 
but they will be the pleasures arising from a sense of 
duty done: Rest, so sweet after the toil is over; glory, 
so bright after the darkness is passed; victory, so grand 
that we shall not wish the conflicts to have been less 
fierce, or the perils of the way less numerous or painful. 

Life is not long enough for any one man to accom- 
plish everything; indeed, but few can at best accomplish 
more than one thing well. Many, alas ! very many, ac- 
complish nothing ; }^et there is not a man endowed with 
intellect, or accomplishments, but what can accomplish, 
at least, one useful, important, worthy purpose. Man 
was made for action, for duty, and for usefulness ; and it 
is only when he lives in accordance with this great design 
of his being that he attains his highest dignity and truest 
happiness. To make pleasure our ultimate aim is cer- 
tainly to fail of it. The pleasure of doing good is the 
only one that never wears out. He who can, at all 
times, sacrifice pleasure to duty, approaches sublimity. 

A man can not choose his own fight, or mode of 
fighting. He can not, at his own choosing, take exist- 
ence lightly, keep out of the struggle going on around 
him. He can not stop in the tents while the strife is 
fought, and think himself wiser than those who fall in 
the struggle. He is hurried onward by the force of cir- 
cumstances. If he has a battle to fight, let him fight it 



584 



THE BI RLE COMPANION. 



faithfully. He must do with his might what his hands 
find to do; and woe betide him if he skulks when his 
name is called on the muster-roll. The only way to do 
is to courageously meet whatever the future has in store 
for us, keeping before us always the law of duty. 

We are in life; we can neither stop nor turn back. 
The journey must be performed whether we will or not. 
Resistance is as vain as it is impossible. It is simply 
wisdom, then, to make the best of our voyage; to make 
it as profitable, pleasant, and delightful as we can. Regret! 
are idle, sighs arc useless, murmurings are unwise. It 
is within the power of all to make life pleasant and 
profitable, or miserable. It is not in the power of all to 
gather riches, enjoy the blessings of health, or to enroll 
their names among the famous of the land. It is within 
the power of all to beautify and adorn their lives accord- 
ing to the station they fill. It is within the power of all 
so to live that their lives may be an inspiration to all; 
and there is no one but what can speak kindly. 

We have, all of us, visited beautifully laid-out land- 
scape gardens. The beauty we admire in them is not the 
result of a few days' work. It has taken years to pro- 
duce the effect we admire. Choice vines have been set 
out, carefully pruned, and trained. Weeds have been 
destroyed, trees trimmed, and, in time, the results we 
admire are before us. Each human soul is a desert, a 
field, a barren plain, a morass, or a garden, as the indi- 
vidual wills it. If we could only live our lives over 
again, how much deep cutting and pruning there would 
be. Much that has been done would be left undone. 
How careful we would be to plant only good seeds. 
We should all cultivate the flower of kindness, the 
vine of patience ; should plant good thoughts, and set 



NOBLE LIVING. 



585 



out early in life the hedge of honor. When once this 
hedge gains life, and grows about the heart, one's life 
puts forth good fruit continually. 

Every one has a duty in this matter of living a pure 
and noble life. It concerns not only ourselves, but oth- 
ers. The influence that goes out from our life, we can 
never tell where it ends. In the case of the garden, it 
is none of our business whether the owner cultivate it or 
not ; whether it grows up to weeds and thorns, or flow- 
ers and fruits, the reward will be his own. But with 
life how different ! not only for our own sakes, but for the 
sake of others, every one is in duty bound to aim at 
reaching the highest standard of character. Not to 
become the richest in means, but in spirit; not the 
greatest in wealthy position, but in true honor ; not the 
most intellectual, though that is an honorable aim, but 
the most virtuous ; not the most powerful and influential, 
but the most truthful, upright, and honest. 

If it is well for man to live at all, he should en- 
deavor to avoid all those influences which detract from 
the beauty and harmony of existence. In other words, 
he should make the most of life. This requires prepa- 
ration. If life is to be a battle, how mad is he who 
fails to arm himself for the conflict ! If life is to be a 
storm, how infatuated is he who sleeps while his bark is 
driven amid unknown waters ! If life is to be a pilgrim- 
age, how unwise is he who strays from the right road, 
nor seeks to return till the twilight shadows gather 
around his pathway ! He must arm himself, remain 
awake, and press forward. Life will then have a deep 
significance to him. 

Not only do our actions influence others, they greatly 
influence ourselves. We may think that one hour buries 



THE KIBLE COMPANION. 



another; it is not so. We may think wo have parted 
forever from the things which have passed by us, but wo 
have not. There is much of our life which we think is 
gone, but which, in reality, we never part with. It has 
slipped behind us, and there it awaits. That which we 
have done is with us to-day; that which we arc doing- 
will be with us to-morrow. When a mason carries up a 
wall, the course of bricks which he laid yesterday is the 
foundation on which he is laying another course to-day. 
All we do to-day, on the structure we arc building, will 
remain as a basis for that which we do to-morrow. 

Outward action can never give a just estimate of us, 
since there are many perfections of a man which are 
incapable of appearing in action. A man's value and 
progress in this life musl be measured, not by what lie gets 
outwardly, but by what he gains inwardly. The beauty 
of a rose lies not in its encasement, but in the delicacy 
of its leaf-tinting, and the delicious sweetness which rises 
out of its blushing bosom. 80 with man. It is the 
color and fragrance of the nature within; it is the rich- 
ness of his inward experiences, and not the grandeur and 
quality of his surroundings, which constitutes his real 
glory and charm. Inspired by high and honorable re- 
solves, a man must stand to his post and die there if 
need be. Let him resolve to dare nobly, to will strongly, 
and to never falter in the path of duty. 

To the man who thinks, reflects on his surroundings, 
life is full of significance. It is a school-house, a work- 
shop, and a gallery of art ; it is a mighty lesson-book for 
his perpetual study. Taking a broad view of our whole 
existence, it is not too much to say that our entire life 
on earth is preparatory. It consists of foundation-work, 
a getting ready, rather than an achievement. We are 



NOBLE LIVING. 



587 



here in this life to learn, rather than to accomplish. 
Are we thus learning ? If not, let us stop, while to stop 
is in our power. Let us live as becomes men who are 
some time to grow old, and pass on to an eternal exist- 
ence. How sad is the state of those who are reminded 
of former health only by maladies which riot has pro- 
duced ! More dreadful still, those who in old age have 
to contemplate a life of folly ! 

It is not the best things — that is, the calms we call 
best — that make men ; it is not the calm experience of 
life — it is its rugged experiences, its tempests, its trials. 
The discipline of life is here good and there evil ; here 
trouble and there joy ; here rudeness and there smooth- 
ness — one working with the other, which necessitates 
adaptations, and constitutes a part of that education 
which makes man a man in distinction from an animal, 
which has no education. The successful man invariably 
bears on his brow the marks of the struggles which he 
has had to undergo. None of us know what we can live 
past until we have passed it. God gives us strength to 
carry us on from one great trial to the next that he has 
reserved for us. We live through them and past them. 
To the world they seem over, but they leave indelible 
scars on the heart of the sufferer. 

But, in general, it seems as if the road of noble action 
led through much of suffering ; yet we are not to give way 
to melancholy forebodings. Meeting evils by anticipation 
is not the way to overcome them. If we always carry our 
burdens around with us, they will soon bear us down un- 
der their load. When evil comes we must bear with it 
bravely and hopefully. We must ever stand upright 
happen what may, and for this evil we must cheerfully 
resign ourselves to the varied influences of this many- 

35 



THE I5I15LE COMPAXIOX. 



colored life. While upon earth we must still play with 
earth, and that which blossoms and fades upon its breast. 
The fact that this life is but the preparatory stage of 
another existence by no means precludes our going 
through it cheerfully. Were we to do otherwise, our 
energy in action would soon entirely fail. 

Life to the unhappy is a prison from whose gloom 
they can not escape, while to the happy it resembles a 
vast palace, filled with all that can delight. The prison 
may, however^ be rendered endurable by resignation; the 
palace, on the other hand, loses some of its bright color- 
ing and gilding every day, until naught but faded rem- 
nants of its pristine beauty remains. So that, finally, 
there is left us only the consolation arising from a well- 
spent life. How earnestly should we seek, then, to live 
a noble life. This is one of the first duties of our exist- 
ence. Take care to live well, no less than to live long; 
the former is in man's power, the latter may not be. 
Doing good — for its own sake — is the only certain happy 
action of a man's life. 

The road of human welfare lies along the old high- 
way of steadfast well-doing, and they who are the most 
persistent, and who work in the truest spirit, will as- 
suredly be the most successful. We are not to sit idly 
by, waiting for great opportunities. The greatest results 
in life are usually attained by simple means and the 
exercise of ordinary qualities. The common life of every 
day, with its cares, petty vexations, necessities, and du- 
ties, affords ample opportunities for acquiring experience 
of the best kind. The most beaten paths of life provide 
the true wwker with abundant scope for effort and room 
for self-improvement. So let us beware of losing our 
enthusiasm, and strive to retain our admiration for all 



NOBLE LIVING. 



589 



that would ennoble, and our interest for all that would 
beautify and enrich our life. 

It is the privilege and duty of all to draw from life 
all the happiness possible. It is the experience of all 
true-hearted people that the deepest and purest happi- 
ness is not to be attained by seeking it as an end of life. 
A life passed in the gratification of all desires is not to 
be compared in results with a life of benevolence. God 
has so constituted our nature that we can not be really 
happy unless we are, or think we are, a means of good. 
Judging from the experience of all, we can not conceive 
of a picture of more unutterable wretchedness than that 
of a person who feels that he is utterly useless in the 
world. We are often placed in positions where we can 
accomplish little or nothing. Sickness may reduce us to 
such straits as that. But even then the resignation with 
Avhich we bear such trials may prove a blessing to 
others. 

Unselfish and noble acts are the most radiant epochs 
in the biography of souls. When wrought in early 
youth, they lie in memory's page like the coral islands, 
green and sunny amidst the melancholy waste of ocean. 
If accomplished in active life, they are the oasis in the 
desert, to which the mind lovingly returns. If in old 
age, they are the beautiful back-ground for the setting 
sun to illume. At all times they are the results of our 
best natures. The joys resulting therefrom are among 
the purest that can enter the human mind. It is a balm 
to the miseries of life, both in him wdio is the object of 
it and in him who exercises it. The essence of true 
nobility is neglect of self. Let the thought of self pass 
in, and the beauty of a great action is gone, like the 
bloom from a soiled flower. 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



We all desire to live so as to accomplish much. 
There is probably no one but what desires this; but all are 
not willing to exert themselves. On every side are those 
who have made sorry work of life. What shall we do 
lest we add to their number? We must be courageous 
and noble-minded. Whatever career we embrace, we 
must propose to ourselves an elevated aim, and put In 
its service a faithful determination to do our best. We 
know not what we can do until we try. If Ave make 
faithful trials, mountains of imaginary difficulties vanish 
as we approach them. When pressed upon and con- 
fused by the noise and tumult of the conflict, we can not 
do better than to return to the line of simple duties, and 
steady our hearts by humblest trust and hope in God. 
Let us never give up the effort; let us never sit down 
in despair. The greater the conflict, the more honorable 
the victory. The greatest men have been those who have 
cut their way to success through difficulties. 

There is one truth that all thoughtful men see more 
and more clearly every day : There is little greatness that 
is worth the name that is not founded upon and accompa- 
nied by sound moral principles. How poor, how vain, how 
miserable the acquirements of man, if no principle of 
uprightness and integrity of character gives tone to the 
impulses. History is full of examples of men who gave 
brilliant promises, who dazzled only to disappoint us, 
because underneath all outside grandeur there was the 
cankering influence of a corrupt heart. A noble life 
belongs not necessarily to professions or creeds, but it 
rests down on the principle of good-will to men, a faith- 
ful performance of seen duties, and a trust in the good 
providence of God. It is in the power of all to live 
such a life. A person living it may not be known be- 



CHAEACTER. 



591 



yond the immediate circle of his acquaintances or friends. 
The world at large may be ignorant of it, yet the influ- 
ence of such a life will never cease, but will extend in a 
continually widening, though perhaps unseen, circle, 
until multitudes are blessed by it. 



HARACTER is, in one sense, the whole of a 
man's being. It is all that is really vital, 
that possesses genuine worth. As the grandeur 
of character opens before us, we see that it is 
one of the most valued things in the universe. Charac- 
ter can not be obtained by demanding it, nor by seeking - 
it. It must be earned. Men may acquire wealth to any 
amount, and yet want character that may be confided in. 
They may have skill in any profession, or genius that 
may surmount any difficulties, or eloquence that can 
sway multitudes, yet if they lack character, confi- 
dence is not reposed in them. It is a plant which every 
one may cultivate ; but it is of slow growth, and requires 
great painstaking. It is in all cases the result of per- 
sonal exertions. It is not inherited from parents, it is 
not created by external advantages, it is no necessary 
appendage of birth, wealth, talent, or situation, but is 
the result of one's own endeavors. In the formation of 
character, personal exertion is the first, the second, and 
third virtue. 

Human character is molded by a thousand subtle 
influences ; by example and precept ; by life and litera- 




592 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ture; by friends and neighbors; by the world of to-day, 
as well as that of the past, whose legacies of good words 
and deeds we inherit. Though these influences are 
freely acknowledged to be great, it is equally true that 
each individual has most to do in the formation of his 
character. However much the wise and good may owe 
to others, they themselves must be their own best help- 
ers. Whoever strives to do his duty faithfully is fulfill- 
ing the purpose for which he was created, and building 
up in himself the principles of a manly character. There 
are many persons of whom it. may be said that they have 

i ther possessions in the world but their character, and 

yet they stand as firmly upon it as any crowned king. 

A good name is fitly compared to a precious oint- 
ment. Deserving praise 1 is a most agreeable perfume, 
but. if too strongly admitted into the brain of a less 
vigorous and happy texture, it will, like too strong an 
odor, overcome the senses and prove pernicious to those 
oerves it was intended to refresh. A generous mind is 
of all others the most sensible of praise and dispraise ; 
and a noble spirit is as much invigorated with its due 
proportion of honor and applause as it is depressed by 
neglect and contempt. But it is only persons far above 
the common level who are thus affected with either of 
these extremes ; as in a thermometer, it is only the 
purest and most sublimated spirit that is either con- 
tracted or dilated by the benignity or inclemency of the 
season. 

Every man is bound to aim at the possession of a 
good character as one of the highest objects of his life. 
His very effort to secure it by worthy means will furnish 
a motive for exertion; and his idea of manhood, in pro- 
portion as it is elevated, will steady and animate his 



CHAEACTER. 



593 



motives. Although genius always commands admiration, 
character most secures respect. The former is more the 
product of the brain power, the latter of heart power ; 
and, in the long run, it is the heart that rules the life. 
Men of genius stand to society in the relation of its in- 
tellect ; men of character, in relation to its conscience. 
While the former are admired, the latter are followed. 

Deportment, honesty, caution, and a desire to do 
right, carried out in practice, are to human character 
what truth and reverence and love are to religion. They 
are the unvaried elements of a good reputation. Such 
virtues can never be reproached, although the vulgar 
and despicable may scoff at them ; but it is not so much 
in their affected revulsion at them as it is in the wish 
to reduce them to the standard of their own degraded 
natures and vitiated passions. Firmness of principle, 
both moral and religious, will ever command the 
proudest encomium of the intelligent world, to the ex- 
clusion of every other thing connected Avith human 
existence. The effect of character is always to command 
consideration. We sport and toy and laugh with men 
and women who are destitute of it, but we never con- 
fide in them. 

The noblest contribution which any man can make 
for the benefit of posterity, is that of a good character. 
The richest bequest which any man can leave to the 
youth of his native land, is that of a shining, spotless 
example. The community and nation is made up of 
individuals, and each one gives a hue to the character 
of the nation or the age in which he lives. The rain- 
drops can not claim that each one is a great affair, and 
yet on their combined influence depends the beauty of 
the landscape, the stream that gladdens the valleys, and 



594 



THE 15II5LE COMPANION. 



the food of man and beast. So the honor, prosperity, 
and hopes of a nation, state, or community depend on 
the characters of the individuals composing the same. 

Every action, every thought, every feeling contributes 
to the education of the temper, the habits, and under? 
Standing, and exercises an inevitable influence upon all 
the acts of our future life. Thus character is undergoing 
constant change for better or for worse — either being 
elevated, on the one hand, or degraded, on the other. 
There is no fault or folly of our past life but rises up 
against us and shortens our power of possession, of sight, 
of understanding. And every past effort of our lives, 
every gleam of rightness or good in it, is with us now. 
One may fail in his other aims; the many accidents of 
life may bring to naught his most patient endeavors 
after worldly fame or success; but he who strives for 
nobility of character will not fail of reward if he but 
diligently seek the same by earnest resolve and patient 
labor. 

With cobs a child can build a play-house, or nothing, 
as it wills. So we can all, with the opportunities of life, 
build ourselves a character which others will either love 
or detest, one in which purity or vice predominates, 
just as we may decide. As the workmen build the 
building, as the gardener, from good soils, carefully 
planted and well trained, grows a bower of beauty, so 
can every one add to the nobility of character and the 
beauty of life. All great results are produced by means 
of trifling causes. So it is in life and the formation of 
character. Little by little we live and make a good 
name, of property, of influence, of reputation. The 
most striking characters are the product of an infinity 
of little accidents. 



CHARACTER. 



595 



Let us take heed, then, how we build, what we do. 
The work which you are performing, you do not leave 
behind you because you forget it. It passes away from 
you apparently, but it does not pass away from you in 
reality. Every stroke, every single element, abides, and 
all serve to build up character. It is a singular truth 
that, though there is nothing that so belongs to the im- 
mortality of man as character, nothing that compares 
with it in importance ; still there is nothing about which 
men think so little as character. Without it, good has 
no value, birth no distinction, station no dignity, beauty 
no charms, age no reverence. Without it, every treas- 
ure impoverishes, every grace deforms, every dignity de- 
grades, and all the arts and decorations and accomplish- 
ments of life stand like the beacon blaze upon a rock, 
warning that its approach is dangerous, that its contact 
is death. 

Character is property. It is the noblest of posses- 
sions. It is an estate in the general good-will and re- 
spect of men ; and they who invest in it, though they 
may not become rich in this world's goods, will find 
their reward in esteem and respect fairly won. This is 
the loving favor which is commended as better than sil- 
ver or gold. And what affords higher, or more perma- 
nent, happiness than the good -will, the, friendly regards, 
the unsuspecting confidence, and cordial approbation of 
the worthy and the excellent among our fellow men? 
It is not money, nor is it mere intellect that governs the 
world ; it is moral character ; it is intellect associated 
with moral excellence. 

Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by 
which we may spell character, the means by which we 
are to judge of the character of others. But God will 



596 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



not judge us merely by our outward acts; these may 
give too favorable a view of our real character, but 
rather by our motives, wishes, purposes, which truly 
show what our character is, show what we really are, 
as the water or glass shows us what the face is. lie 
wild lives for fame, and not character, lives for the 
shadow and not for the reality. Fame that is lived for 
is a bubble, hollow and thin, which bursts in attempting 
to secure it. To live for fame is to miss it. To make 
this the object of life is to fail. Ileal fame, that is sub- 
stantial, is that which follows, not that which is run 
alter; that which comes, not that which is sought. 

The possession of character inspires a confidence, in 
the bosom of those who know you, that you have the 
power, the capacity, ami the disposition to confer happi- 
ness on others. This also includes a power over your- 
self, so that you can govern and restrain your own 
wishes, and thus take care of yourself. And it will 
imply that you have the power and have the disposition 
to exercise that power to do good to others. A good 
heart, benevolent feelings, and a balanced mind, lie at 
the foundation of character. Other things may be 
deemed accidental, they may come and go; but charac- 
ter is that which lives and abides, and is admired long 
after its possessor has left the earth, the theater on which 
it was displayed. Character is the force in the bow that 
speeds the arrow; or it is the latent heat behind the 
word that gives it direction and projectile force. 

Character is very different from reputation. A man's 
character is the reality of himself; his reputation, the 
opinions others have formed about him; character re- 
sides in him, reputation in other people: that is the 
substance, this the shadow; and, like a shadow, it some- 



CHAEACTEE. 



597 



times follows, sometimes precedes a man; it is occasion- 
ally longer, occasionally shorter than he is. Neither is 
character to be compared with passing renown. The 
latter is the popularity which rifles home of its sweet; 
and, by elevating a man above his fellows, places him in 
a region of desolation, where he stands a conspicuous 
mark for the shafts of malice, envy, and detraction ; a 
popularity which raises the head among storms, but 
leaves its feet on the treacherous quicksands of opinion. 

All that exalts, ennobles, embellishes, and dignifies 
humanity — all that confers solid peace, real joy, soul- 
felt satisfaction — all that good men and angels love and 
admire in human creatures, is blended in the beauty and 
glory of a truly good and genuine character. Whatever 
degree of happiness, of the soul's calm sunshine and 
heartfelt joy, is felt by any man, is the result of a cor- 
responding degree of goodness in his character. Good 
men have their trials and sorrows as well as others ; but 
in and through them all there is the sunshine of a holy 
and lofty peace above all clouds, as permanent and 
glorious as the firmament of heaven. Their troubles are 
the earthly incidents of strong affections and noble 
aspirations, which refine and elevate while they cause 
pain, so that in the end they increase rather than 
diminish their real happiness. 

It is vain for any man to think he hides his charac- 
ter. He may, for a few days, deceive others with 
respect to its nature, but the unseen influence which he 
exerts upon those about him is exactly in keeping with 
his real character. There is an invisible telegraph be- 
tween soul and soul — a mysterious spirit-medium by 
which the secret states of our mind are unconsciously 
conveyed to another to produce their legitimate inference. 



598 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Sometimes this secret influence is so powerful that we 
feel it .sensibly, and yet know not why. How often, 
when we have met a stranger, we have been impressed 
with feelings the cause of which we could not explain. 
Sometimes it is a charm, sometimes a feeling of repul- 
sion. It is by this unseen and mysterious process that 
the mightiest influences of character are exerted about us. 

An unblemished character is an evangel of charity 
which nothing can prevent, the ministration of a good 
which everywhere blesses. Such a character breathei| 
goodness, virtue, holiness, everywhere. Every one who 
"possesses such a treasure is a benefactor of mankind. 
He adds to the goodness and happiness of the world. 
He increases its moral strength and virtue. He proves 
the superiority of right over wrong, of virtue over vice; 
and he is sowing the seeds all about him of a harvest of 
good, both in this world and in the spirit realm. In the 
formation of a good character, every body can bless the 
world, while they are blessing themselves; can give a 
glorious charity, while they keep it; can impart wisdom, 
while they obtain it; can make others rich, while they 
are enriching themselves. While it is the best and only 
sure way in the world to do good unto others, it is also 
the easiest; it requires no money, no loss of time or 
sleep or strength, but will rather add to all of these. It 
is so easy that it is within everybody's reach. 

Though it can certainly be acquired by all, though it 
is seen to be a great good to the individual and society 
at large, yet, like everything of value in the world, it can 
not be formed without effort. There is required constant 
self-watchfulness, self-discipline, and self-control. But 
every one has strength sufficient for this if he will only 
exert it. There may be much faltering, stumbling, and 



CHARACTER. 



599 



temporary defeat; difficulties and temptations manifold 
to be battled with and overcome; but if the spirit be 
strong, and the heart be upright, no one need despair 
of ultimate success. The very effort to advance, to 
arrive at a higher standard of character than we have 
reached, is inspiring ; and, even though we may fall short 
of it, we can not fail to be improved by every honest 
effort made in an upward direction. 

The development of a character, admirable in itself, 
requires some high and lofty aim of life to bring it to 
its best perfection. The heart dwindles in contact with 
small things and narrow interests ; but when brought into 
harmony with great ideas, striving for a great end, with 
strong feelings excited, and willing to pour upon the 
altar of success the most costly and precious sacrifices, 
then the human heart, developing the germs of its im- 
mortal nature, rises to the heights of the loftiest ideas, 
and enlarges to the compass of the broadest principles. 

Perseverance in well-doing must be the motto of him 
who strives after the possession of character. There is, 
perhaps, nothing more conducive to success in any im- 
portant and difficult undertaking than the possession of 
a firm, steady, unremitting spirit. Without this quality 
genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies. 
Firmness of purpose is also one of the necessary sinews 
of character. The greatest man is he who chooses the 
right with the most invincible resolution ; who resists 
temptations from within and without, also bears the 
heaviest burdens cheerfully ; who is calmest in storms, 
and most fearless under menaces and frowns. 

The labors of minute insects have served to build up 
lofty mountains. Broad bands of solid rock, which un- 
dergird the earth, have been welded by the patient, con- 



600 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



stant toil of invisible creatures, working on through the 
ages, unhasting, unresisting, fulfilling their Maker's will. 
On the shores of primeval oceans, watched only by the 
patient stars, these silent workmen have been building 
for us the structure of the world. And thus the obscure 
work of unknown, nameless ages, appears at last in the 
sunlight — the adorned and noble theater of that life of 
man which, of all that is done in this universe, is fulled 
before God of interest and hope. It is thus, too, in life; 
the quiet moments build the years. The labors of the 
obscure and unremembered hours edify that palace of 
the soul in which it is to abide, and fabricate the organ 
whereby it is to work and express itself through eter- 
nity. It is little by little that every man's character is 
formed. Most of our thoughts and actions may be mi- 
nute, and unnoticed even by ourselves, yet the result is 
character for eternity. 

Among the elements of a good character is that of 
hope. In seasons of distress and difficulty, to abandon 
ourselves to dejection is evidence of a weak character. 
Instead of sinking under trouble, it becomes us in an 
evil day with firmness to maintain our post; to bear up 
against the storm ; to have recourse to those advantages 
which, in the worst of times, are always left to integrity 
and virtue, and never give up the hope that better days 
may conic. Courage is another of the elements of char- 
acter — that courage which will meet disappointments, 
trial, sickness, and all the varied ills of life, with a de- 
termined and vigorous composure, and a self-reliance 
which enables the possessor to pursue his course undis- 
mayed, and add to rather than detract from his courage. 
There is needed that courage which dares be true to 
duty though the heavens fall; true, when the world 



CHARACTER. 



601 



knows it not; true, in the calm resolve of the midnight 
hour, when no eye but God's looks in the soul; true, 
when the world would applaud for being false, and every 
worldly interest would seem to offer a reward for being 
false to convictions of duty. 

The beauty of some commanding building consists not 
simply of the beautiful woods wherewith it is finished, the 
stone and bricks of which it is mainly composed, the slates 
used in the composition of the roof, the shape, size, and 
position of the windows, but of all combined. Even so 
is character a composite thing. We want not strength of 
character less than gentleness of manner, not inflexibility 
of purpose less than a willingness to yield when con- 
vinced we are in error. We want not only courage, but 
a trustful dependence on a higher power. We want 
resignation to bear the ills of life, no less than hope to 
see the better days beyond. 

With bits of many-colored stones the patient worker 
pieces together mosaic work of great beauty. Each little 
piece of stone is possessed of little beauty by itself. 
Placed in proper relation with the other pieces, how 
greatly we admire the effect produced ! Even so is char- 
acter ; it is a mosaic. Each day of our life we are build- 
ing : the kind deed wrought here, the little act of duty 
done there, the trial patiently endured, may each and 
all by themselves seem unimportant, but they build up 
a beautifully complete and harmonious character — one 
that brings blessings not only to its possessor, but the 
influence going out from it to the community at large is 
of the purest and best. 



602 THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Influence. 

TIE influence which one person lias over an- 
other is ofttimea very great. We all of us 
exercise some influence. Every man, how- 
ever humble his station or feeble his power, 
exercises some influence on those who are about him for 
good or for evil. If this influence were all for good, how 
much of happiness there would soon be in the world! 
But, unfortunately, there are others whose constant in- 
fluence is downward. There are no neutral characters 
whose influence is neither good nor evil. No human 
being can come into this world without either increasing 
or diminishing the sum total of human happiness. This 
will l)e true not only of the present age, but for all time 
to come. There is no action of man in this life which is 
not the beginning of so long a chain of consequences 
that no human providence is high enough to give us a 
prospect to the end. 

Influence is exerted in all the varied relations of life. 
The specific influence of husband and wife, of parent and 
child, of brother and sister, of teacher and pupil, united 
and harmoniously blended, constitute the home influence. 
This influence commences with our birth, goes with us 
through life, clings to us in death, and reaches into the 
eternal world. It is great, silent, irresistible, and per- 
manent. Like a deep-flowing stream, it moves on in 
silent but overwhelming power. It strikes its roots deep 
into the human heart, and spreads its branches wide 




REBEKAH AT THE WELL. «03 



INFLUENCE. 



605 



over our whole being. It holds the empire of the heart 
and rules the life. It is traditional. It passes down the 
current of life from one generation to another. It keeps 
up a continuous stream of home life, and feeling, and 
interest. 

The influence of home is felt as soon as the little 
child is able to take notice of the objects around. It 
does not take it long to tell the mother's countenance 
from all the rest. It soon discovers that her's is the 
countenance that ever smiles upon it ; that her's is 
the form ever bending over the cradle when it wakes 
from its sleep. In joy or sorrow, in weal or in woe, she 
is soon the first object of its thoughts. The influence 
she thus gains never dies. The impressions she is able 
to produce never die. They are indelible, and durable 
as life. Compared with them, other impressions are like 
those made upon sand or wax. These are the deep 
borings in the flinty rock. To erase them we must re- 
move every strata of our being. 

The influence of home is important, because it is 
woven with the woof of childhood, and gives color to the 
whole texture of life. Early impressions are not easily 
erased; the virgin wax is faithful to the signet, and sub- 
sequent impressions serve rather to indent the former 
one. There are but few who can receive the honors of 
a college education, but all are graduates of the heart. 
The learning of the university may fade from recollec- 
tion ; its classic lore may be lost from the halls of mem- 
ory ; but the simple lessons of home, enameled upon the 
heart of childhood, defy the rust of years, and outlive 
the more mature but less vivid pictures of after days. 
So deep, so lasting are the impressions of early life, that 
ou often see a man in the imbecility of age holding 



606 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



fresh in his recollection the events of childhood, while 
all the wide space between that and the present hour is 
a forgotten waste. 

It is not at all necessary that we should be some 
public personage in order that our influence should be felt 
about us. Persons in such a position may wield a power 
more apparent to others, but it is not more positive and 
sure than that of one in obscurity. Our looks, our words, 
our actions, even our silence, speak of our character. We 
arc impressing ourselves upon others. All about us, our 
superiors, our equals, and our inferiors, are receiving 
impressions of our characters. Wc are breathing a 
silent but strong influence into many a soul, which goes 
direct from our character. Action and reaction arc no 
less equal in the moral world than in the physical one. 
Good deeds act and react on the doer of them, and so 
do evil. Not only so, they produce like effects by the 
influence of example on those who are the subjects of 
them. 

This must impress all thoughtful minds with the 
importance of influence, and the necessity of exercising 
it in right manner. Our characters are not for ourselves 
only ; as far as their influence is concerned, they are for 
others also. If they make us happy they produce a 
similar happiness in the minds with whom we associate, 
differing only in degree ; and when we come to reflect 
on the friends, relatives, and neighbors about us, think 
how many we meet with and speak with, and thus influ- 
ence, from year to year, all through our lives, and then 
calculate the amount of influence we exert upon the 
world, we begin to see what an important thing human 
influence is. 

It would, indeed, be difficult to overestimate the 



INFLUENCE. 



607 



influence which the lives of the great and good have 
exercised upon the elevation of human character. The 
biography of a good man is a reunion with human exist- 
ence in its most excellent state. It is not easy to read 
such accounts without being unconsciously lighted and 
lifted up in them, and growing insensibly nearer to what 
they thought and did. And even the lives of humbler 
persons, of men of faithful and honest spirit, who have 
done their duty in life well, are not without an elevating 
influence upon the character of those who come after 
them. There are men whose lives are far more elo- 
quent than their speeches, whose personal influence is far 
greater than their deeds. The recollection of men who 
have signalized themselves by great thoughts or great 
deeds seems as if to create for the time a purer atmos- 
phere around us, and we feel as if our aims and pur- 
poses were unconsciously elevated. 

Since we all know how powerful influence may be, 
either for good or evil, how careful we should be to 
avoid submitting ourselves to evil influences, but try to 
surround ourselves with good influences. This requires 
a careful watch of the company we keep. There is a 
certain magic, or charm, in company, for it will assim- 
ilate, and make you like to them ; if they be good com- 
pany, it is a great means to make you good, or confirm 
you in goodness ; but, if they be bad, the probabilities 
are they will infect and corrupt you. Therefore be cau- 
tious in choosing your associates. Men, or women, that 
are greedy of acquaintance, or hasty in it, are ofttimes 
snared in ill company before they are aware, and entan- 
gled so that they can not easily loose from it after, when 
they would. 

There is one class of associates all should avoid. No 



608 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



person that is an enemy to God can be a friend to man. 
He that has already proved himself ungrateful to the 
Author of every blessing will not scruple, when it will 
serve his turn, to shake off a fellow-being. He may 
render you instrumental to his own purposes, but he 
will never benefit you. A bad man is a curse to others, 
as he is secretly, notwithstanding all his boasting and 
affected gayety, a burden to himself. Shun him as you 
would a serpent in your path. Be not misled by his 
rank, his wealth, his wit, or his influence. When we 
live habitually with the wicked, we become necessarily 
either their victim or their disciple. When we associate, 
nil the contrary, with virtuous men, we form ourselves in 
imitation of their virtues, or, at least, lose every day 
something of our faults. 

As wife and mother, a woman is seen in her most 
sacred and dignified character. As such, she has great 
influence over the characters of individuals, over the con- 
dition of families, and over the destinies of nations. It 
is a fact that many of our noblest patriots, our most 
profound scholars, and our holiest ministers, were stim- 
ulated to their excellence and usefulness by those holy 
principles which they derived in early years from a 
mother's lip. Whatever may be the efficiency of schools, 
the examples set in our homes must always be of vastly 
greater influence in forming the character of our future 
men and women. Our mothers are our earliest instruc- 
tors, and they have an influence over us, the importance 
of which, for time and eternity, surpasses the power of 
language to describe. 

Woman's influence is the chief anchor of society ; and 
this influence is purifying the world, and the work she 
has already accomplished will last forever. JSTo costly 



INFLUENCE. 



609 



marble can build a more enduring monument to her 
memory than the impress she makes on her own house- 
hold. The changing scenes of life may hurl the genius 
of man from eminence to utter ruin ; for his life hangs 
on the fabric of public opinion. But the honest form of 
a true mother reigns queen in the hearts of her children 
forever. 

Those impulses to conduct which last the longest, and 
are rooted the deepest, always have their origin near our 
birth. It is there that the germs of virtue or vice, of 
feeling or sentiment, are first implanted which determine 
the character for life. It is in childhood that the mind 
is most open to impression, and ready to be kindled by 
the first spark that flies into it. The first thing con- 
tinues always with the child. The first jo} r , the first 
failure, the first achievement, the first misadventure, 
paint the foreground of life. 

One can not tell the hour when the human mind 
is not in condition to receive impressions from exterior 
moral forces. Long before some imagine, little eyes are 
noting what others do, and little hearts are being molded 
by the lives and characters of those around them. In 
innumerable instances the most secret and unnoticed 
influences have been in operation for months, and even 
years, to break down the strongest barriers of the human 
heart, and work out its moral ruin, while yet the fondest 
parents and friends have been unaware of the working 
of such unseen agents of evil. A parent can not be too 
early on the watch, can not be too careful to see that 
good influences are thrown around the child intrusted to 
his care. 

Still more should a father or mother guard his or her 
own conduct of the child. There is importance even in 



610 



THE JUBLE COMPANION". 



the handling of infancy. If it is fretful, peevish, selfish, 
it will beget like states of mind and actions. If it is 
gentle, even, patient, kind, and loving, it prepares a 
similar mode and temper. Then how careful to banish 
the cross word, the impatient gesture, the selfish act ! 
Let kind and loving tones only fall on its ears, and only 
gentle hands assist it in its little wants. There is no 
reason to doubt that those resentful, passionate, ill- 
formed characters, no less than those lovely, firm, and 
true ones, are prepared in a great degree by the hand- 
ling of the nursery and the examples of childhood. 

The biography of many persons, faithfully written, 
would convince us that we are to look to early training 
for the results seen not only in childhood days, but for 
the matured character of subsequent years. The gen- 
tle graces of the mother live in the daughter long after 
the mother's form is laid away. Fatherly kindness 
finds its echo in the nobility and character of sons who 
come to wear his mantle and fill his place. But it is 
none the less true that, from unhappy, misgoverned, and 
ill-ordered homes, go forth persons win; will inevitably 
make other homes miserable, and thus continue the sor- 
row and sadness, the contentions and strife, that made 
their own early life miserable. Never think anything 
that has to do with the training of home unimportant. 
Compared with home, the school, the college, the govern- 
ment, and general society sink into insignificance as 
means of spiritual life and growth. 

Thus homes, which are the nurseries of children who 
grow up into men and women, will be good or bad ac- 
cording to the power that governs them. "Where the 
spirit of love and duty pervades the home — where 
head and heart bear rule wisely there — where the 



INFLUENCE. 



611 



daily life is honest and virtuous — where the government 
is sensible, kind, and loving, then may we expect from 
such a home an issue of healthy, useful, and happy 
beings, capable, as they gain the requisite strength, of 
following the footsteps of their parents, of walking up- 
rightly, governing themselves wisely, and contributing 
to the welfare of those about them. On the other hand, 
if surrounded by ignorance, coarseness, and selfishness, 
they will unconsciously assume the same character, and 
grow up to adult years rude, uncultivated, and all the 
more dangerous to society if placed amidst the manifold 
temptations of what is called civilized life. 

The power of example to little children, and the in- 
fluence of early ideas implanted in their minds, may be 
compared to letters cut in the bark of a young tree, 
which grow and widen with age. The impressions 
then made, however slight they may seem, are never 
effaced. The ideas then implanted in the mind are like 
seeds dropped into the ground, which lie there and ger- 
minate for a time, afterwards springing up in acts and 
thoughts and habits. Thus the mother lives again in 
her children. They unconsciously mold themselves after 
her manner, her speech, her conduct, and her method of 
life. Her habits become theirs, and her character is 
visibly repeated in them, Parents may do all that they 
can to develop an upright and virtuous character, and ap- 
parently in vain. And yet it sometimes happens that 
long after the parents have gone to their rest — it may 
be many years — the good precepts and examples set be- 
fore their sons and daughters, in childhood, at length 
spring up and bear fruit. 

The greater part of the influence exercised by a 
mother on the formation of character necessarily remain 



612 



THE HII5LE COMCAXIOX. 



unknown. They accomplish their best work in the 
quiet .seclusion of the home and the family, by sustained 
effort and patient perseverance in the path of duty. 
Their greatest triumphs, localise private and domestic, 
arc rarely recorded; and it is not often, even in the 
biographies of distinguished men, that we hear of the 
share which their mothers have had in the formation of 
their character, and in giving them a bias towards good- 
ness. Yet they are not, on that account, without their 
reward. The influence they have exercised, though un- 
recorded, lives after them, and goes on propagating itself 
continually. 

While woman is the natural cherisher of infancy and 
the instructor of childhood, she is also the guide and 
counselor of youth, and the confidant and companion 
of manhood, in her varied relations of mother, sister, 
lover, and wife. In short, the influence of woman more 
or less affects, for good or for evil, the entire destinies 
of man. Her character influences the morals, manners, 
and character of the people in all countries. Where she 
is debased, society is debased; where she is morally pure 
and enlightened, society will be proportionally elevated. 

But all the example of a father's life, the touching 
influence of a mother's prayer, will not suffice to build 
up a character which will stand firm against all the 
temptations to which it is exposed; it requires active 
exertion on the part of the person influenced before these 
good results are seen. We may own fertile fields, good 
corn may be sown, but cultivation is none the less re- 
quired before results are reached. Xo one, then, need to 
conclude from his surroundings that exertion is not 
required on his part, if he would make for himself a 
character loved and respected by all. If the influences 



INFLUENCE. 



613 



surrounding him are good, this is his good fortune, since 
it tends to make his work easy; if otherwise, he must 
try and rise above them. 

The ponderous planets wheel round yon distant sun 
in obedience to that subtle force we call gravitation. 
One soul sometimes circulates around another in obedi- 
ence to the law of influence. There is this difference, 
however, the force of influence often increases as the 
distance increases. The parent, brother or sister, wife 
or loving friend, who has passed to the other shore, often 
exerts more of an influence than when walking with us. 
When a child comes to go away from the home, and 
finds by experience how cold and unsympathetic is the 
world at large, what a strange influence then does the 
thought of home have over him! Influence is not so 
much a question of money, or strength of will, or the 
possession of arbitrary power, as it is of kindness of 
heart. A little child, with a laugh and a song and 
trustful look, will often wield more influence than the 
capitalist. 

We can not at our own choosing be rich and power- 
ful. There are a great many in the world all striving 
with this one object in view, and some must fall, while 
others rise. W r e can not, by desiring it, be educated; 
our circumstances may be such that all our time is re- 
quired for other duties. But all can be sure that the 
influence we exert shall be for good and not evil. We 
can gain others by kind words; if we see stones in their 
paths we try, at least, and remove them, We are not 
concerned in giving them good advice; we can, however, 
live before them a life of self-denial. We may not be so 
gifted that we can set others right in their opinions on 
the great and important questions of the clay; if we are 



614 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



only active in doing right, there is no doubt which way 
our influence will be cast. We may not know how to 
heal diseases; we may do much to render those suffering 
therefrom more comfortable. In short, as far as in- 
fluence is concerned, an individual may do pretty much 
what he will with his life. He can make it for good or 
for evil. He can not, however, set bounds beyond which 
it will not pass — it will continue forever. 

< 

Duty. 



HE law of duty is supreme. It claims au- 
thority over reason and conscience, over talents 
and possessions, over everything that is great- 
est and noblest in man. It admits no rival, 
makes no abatement of its high demands, enters into no 
compromise with any opposing power. The voice of 
duty is the voice of God in our souls. Obedience to its 
claims brings us into living and personal agreement with 
the highest law in the universe. It lends greatness to 
the humblest occupation, crowns the lowliest position in 
life with glory and honor, brings man into alliance with 
God, associates him with plans and purposes that have 
existed in the Infinite Mind from eternity, and which run 
on towards their appointed completion through all com- 
ing ages. In every act of duty we go out of ourselves, 
and beyond the narrow scope of present interests and 
selfish gratifications. 

We have all heard that beautiful saying: "The two 
most beautiful things in the universe are the starry 




DUTY. 



615 



heavens above our heads, and the sentiments of duty in 
the human soul." A person whose life and actions are 
governed by a sense of duty is sure to occupy a com- 
manding position in the esteem of others. They may be 
retiring and modest, but there is in them what commands 
respect, what enforces esteem. The sun is not truer to 
his course than they to theirs. They are as reliable as 
the everlasting rocks. Every day finds in them the same 
beautiful, steady, moral firmness. They have but to 
know their duty to be ready to engage in it. Though 
men laugh or sneer, though the world frown or threaten, 
they will do it. There is no bravado in them; it is the 
simple power of integrity. They are true to what to 
them seems right. They are consistent, simple-hearted, 
uniform, and truthful. The good love to gather around 
them for the blessing of their smiles; they strew their 
pathway with moral light. They bless without effort. 
They teach sentiments of duty and honesty in every act 
of their lives. All ought to strive to live such a life, and 
thereby bless the world. 

A duty shunned or a duty delayed is a duty still. 
The excuses which men make for neglecting their duty 
can not diminish their obligation. You may put off till 
to-morrow what conscience commands to-day, and when 
to-morrow comes, with its cares and toils and temptations, 
it may be easier to defer again. But the obligation will 
not die or diminish its claims. We can not escape from 
duty. So let us meet it bravely and cheerfully. Let us 
do our duty in our shop or our kitchen, the market, the 
street, the office, the school, the home, just as faithfully 
as if we stood in the front rank of some great battle, and 
we knew that victory for mankind depended on our 
bravery, strength, and skill. When we do that, the hum- 



616 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



blest of us will be serving in that great army which 
achieves the welfare of the world. 

Duty is the one stimulant that never fails, yet never 
intoxicates. Duty puts a blue sky over every man — up 
in his heart, may be — into which the skylark, happiness, 
always goes singing. The consciousness of duty per- 
formed gives us music at midnight. Duty done will 
make the voice of conscience sweet as the harps of 
heaven to your soul. It will make the cup of life run 
over with blessing. It will snatch the crown of victory 
from the hand of all-conquering death. Duty neglected 
will arm the voice of conscience with the terrors of judg- 
ment to come. It will till the secret chambers of the 
soul with reproaches and with the sentence of condem- 
nation. The Bible ever sets duty and principle above 
policy and interest; it is the basis of all human progress. 

A sense of duty pursues us ever. If we take to our- 
selves the wings of the morning and dwell in the upper- 
most parts of the sea, duty performed or duty violated 
is still with us for our happiness or our misery. If we 
say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as in the 
light our obligations are yet with us. We can not 
escape their power, nor fly from their presence. They 
are with us in this life, will be with us at its close; and 
in that scene of inconceivable solemnity, which lies yet 
further onward, we shall find ourselves surrounded by 
the consciousness of duty, to pain us wherever it has 
been violated, and to console us so far as God may have 
given us grace to perform it. The path of duty is the 
only path of happiness, safety, and usefulness. 

There are duties from the performance of which 
human nature shrinks. And the voice of conscience, 
which enjoins a great and perilous duty, is one which we 



DUTY. 



617 



are likely to receive with doubts and fears. We must 
not hesitate till every shadow of uncertainty, every pos- 
sibility of mistake, is removed. The doubt that demands 
perfect knowledge will never yield to faith, for faith 
rests upon probability, not demonstration. There is no 
scientific ground for faith, simply because what has be- 
come science is taken out of the sphere of faith. We 
must obey the voice of duty when there are many other 
voices crying against it. We must cherish the impulse 
of conscience the moment when it urges us to active 
duty, lest it cease from its promptings and we be left to 
the blind guidance of appetite and fashion. Duty and 
to-day are ours ; results and futurity belong to God. 

We should not allow ourselves to look in the face of 
a present and an acknowledged duty, and delay to meet 
its demands. It darkens the mind, it perverts the judg- 
ment, it hardens the heart, it wastes precious opportuni- 
ties, it weakens all good purposes, to hold ourselves 
back from doing anything which to us now is clearly 
and unquestionably right. Happiness is always found in 
a prompt meeting of seen duties. No man's spirits were 
ever hurt by doing his duty ; on the contrary, one good 
action done, one temptation resisted and overcome, one 
sacrifice of desire or interest purely for conscience' sake, 
will prove a cordial for weak and low spirits far beyond 
what either indulgence or diversion can do for us. Let 
him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, 
and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, 
lay this precept well to heart, "Do the duty which lies 
nearest thee," which thou knowest to be a duty. Thy 
second duty will already have become clearer. The best 
teacher of latent duties is the practice of the plain. 

Duty and obligations are not exactly the same. 



618 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Every man has obligations which belong to his station. 

Duty extends beyond obligation, and directs the affec- 
tions, desires, and intentions, as well as the actions. 

Duty is also far more than love. It is the upholding 

law through which the weakest become strong, without 
which all strength is unstable as water. No character, 
however harmoniously framed and gloriously gifted, can 
be complete without this abiding principle. It is the 
cement which binds the whole moral edifice together, 
without which all power, goodness, intellect, truth, hap- 
piness, love itself, can have no permanence, and the 
whole fabric of existence will crumble away from under 
us. and leave us, at last, sitting in the midst of ruin, as- 
tonished at our own desolation. 

Life consists not of a series of illustrious actions, or 
elegant enjoyments; the greater part of our time passes 
in compliance with necessities, in the performance of 
daily duties, in the removal of small inconveniences, in 
the procurement of petty pleasures. We are apt to mis- 
take our vocation by looking out of the way for occasions 
to exercise great and rare virtues, and by stepping over 
the ordinary ones, that lie directly in the road before us. 
Let us reverence, indeed, the highest duty, but we should 
have patience with the lowest also, and seek to meet its 
demands. Let this day s performance of all, even the 
meanest, duties, be our religion. If the stars are too 
distant for our grasp, Ave can pick up the pebbles at our 
feet. A duty comes with the morning dawn of each day; 
for the darkest, as well as the brightest, for the saddest, 
as well as the most joyous. The true way to render 
ourselves happy is to love our duty and find in it our 
pleasure. 

Fidelity in the most common and homely duties of 



DUTY. 



619 



life, opens the door of the house for the greatest of 
heaven's blessings to come in. The discharge of duties 
that are fully known and easily understood is qualifi- 
cation for the comprehension of the deepest and most 
awful mysteries of our being and destiny. There is 
nothing in the universe to be feared by him who binds 
duty as a law upon his heart. But men little think 
that there are no dangers so much to be dreaded as 
those which must be met in attempting to flee from duty. 
Our duty, though set about by thorns, may still be a staff, 
supporting even while it tortures. Cast it away and, like 
the prophet's wand, it changes to a snake. Let no one 
think a slight or a single deviation from the path of 
duty a thing of little consequence. It is the first step 
which fixes the long journey. 

As every denial brings its appropriate compensation, 
every thought its recompense, every love its elysium, 
every cross its crown, even so does every duty bring its 
peculiar delight. Pay goes with performance, as effect 
with cause. The path of duty is by no means that of 
gloom, or sadness, or darkness. Like the roads of the 
South, it is hedged with ever-bloom, pure and white as 
snow. It is only when we turn to the right hand, or the 
left, that we are lacerated by piercing thorns, and con- 
fronted with hitherto concealed dangers. Duty, fully 
accepted and faithfully met, will raise us above every 
thing that is mean and selfish and impure. It will 
make us believe and feel that we always have some- 
thing great and glorious and good to live for. What the 
world wants most is men in whose minds the great 
thought of duty is ever present. 

Be not diverted from your sense of duty by any 
reflections that others may make upon you. It is not in 



620 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



your power to command their praise or their censure; 
these, consequently, should not be any part of your con- 
cern. What you must do is all that should concern you, 
and not what other people think. This rule, equally as 
arduous in actual and intellectual lite, may serve for the 
whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It 
is harder, because you will always find those who think 
they know what is your duty better than you know it. 
Jt is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions; 
it is easy, in solitude, to live after your own; but the 
great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps 
with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. It 
matters not to such a man whether others are standing 
by to praise or to blame, he goes ahead fearlessly in the 
discharge of his duty. 

But very few men can be great, but each man can 
act his part honestly and honorably, and to the best of 
his ability. He can use his gifts, and not abuse them. 
1 1" can strive to make the best of life. He can be true, 
just, honest, and faithful, even in small things. In a 
word, he can do his duty in that sphere in which Prov- 
idence has placed him. This doing of one's duty em- 
bod ies, after all, the highest ideal of life and character. 
There may be nothing heroic about it, but the common 
lot of men is not heroic. Though the abiding sense of 
duty upholds man in the highest altitudes, it also equally 
sustains him in the transaction of the ordinary affairs of 
every-day existence. Man's life is centered in the sphere 
( f common duties. The most influential of all the duties 
are those which are most in request for daily use. They 
wear the best and last the longest. But duty embraces 
in its sweep all classes of men. While it is especially 
applicable to the conduct of affairs in common life, by 



DUTY. 



621 



the average of common men, it is also' a sustaining 
power to men of the very highest standard of character. 
They may not have either money, or property, or learn- 
ing, or power ; and yet they may be strong in heart and 
rich in spirit — honest, truthful, and dutiful. 

The work of many of the greatest men, inspired by 
duty, has been done amid suffering and trial and diffi- 
culty, and not always with success. They have struggled 
against the tide, and reached the shore exhausted, only 
to grasp the sand and expire. They have done their 
duty, and been content to die. But death hath no 
power over such men; their hallowed memories still 
survive to soothe, and purify, and bless us. We have 
each to do our duty in that sphere in life in which we 
have been placed. Duty alone is true. There is no true 
action but in its accomplishment. Duty is the end and 
aim of the highest life. The truest pleasure of all is 
that derived from the consciousness of its fulfillment. 
Of all others it is the one that is most thoroughly satis- 
fying, and the least accompanied by regret and dis- 
appointment. 

We are never to take a selfish view of life, and con- 
clude that, inasmuch as others are in no wise concerned 
in our welfare, therefore it can not matter whether we 
scrupulously perform our duty or not. Suppose that we 
have no friends to share with us our success in life; 
that we look not back to those to whom we owe gratitude, 
nor forward to those to whom we ought to afford protec- 
tion; it is no less incumbent on us to move steadily on 
in the path of duty; for our active exertions are due, 
not only to society, but in humble gratitude to the Being 
who made us a member of it, with power to serve our- 
selves and others. W T hat is our duty to do we must do, 

37 



622 



Till: BIIiLi: COMPANION. 



because it is right; not because any one can demand it 
of us. There may be little, or, to our human eyes, 
nothing worth living for; but wo all can and ought to 
go forward and do our duty in God's own appointed way, 
until such time as he graciously calls us hence. We are 
not to wait for extraordinary opportunities for good 
actions, but make use of common situations. A long- 
continued walk is better than a short flight. 

There are certain responsibilities heaped upon us 
from which we can not be free. To a certain extent, \vc 
are responsible for the condition of our bodies and 
minds, for the use of them in all their several parts and 
powers. In a measure, we are responsible for our 
thoughts, moral feelings, reflections, and meditations; 
for our attainments in knowledge and usefulness; for our 
moral character, conduct, influence, and example; for all 
trusts voluntarily assumed, and for the good we are 
capable of doing. This is a tremendous load, but easy 
and delightful to carry if we make it so. Carried 
through faithfully, the reward is great and glorious be- 
yond computation. Those plain and legible lines of 
duty require us to demean ourselves to God humbly and 
devoutly, to our rulers obediently, to our neighbors 
justly, and to ourselves soberly and temperately. 

It is only by long and sore discipline, and the most 
determined exercise of will, that we become superior to 
temptation. The course of duty is like the path by 
which travelers climb the passes of Alpine mountains. 
It turns this way and that way; it clings to the face of 
the towering cliff ; it hangs on the brink of the fathom- 
less abyss; it pierces the projecting crag; it crosses the 
narrow ravine ; it bridges the roaring torrent ; it sweeps 
the track where the thundering avalanche rushes down, 



DUTY. 



623 



yet all the while it climbs higher and higher. The trav- 
eler can go on only by lifting himself at every step 
above the sunny fields, above the dark green woods, 
above the storm-swept pines and firs, into the clear light 
and bracing mountain air. But the very process of 
climbing makes the youthful mountaineer joyous and 
strong. The torrents sing with a more gladsome voice, 
the hoary peaks are crowned with brighter snows, the 
sky is tinged with a deeper blue, the sun shines with a 
more glorious light, the landscape unfolds with greater 
magnificence to him who has braced his nerves, and 
quickened his pulse, and expanded his bosom by weary 
hours of climbing to the lofty heights. 

So it is with all who climb the ascending path of 
duty and of faith. Let the young man take the divine 
"Excelsior" for his watchword as he goes up the toil- 
some steep. As he passes through dangers and difficul- 
ties, making every step of advance by effort, and gaining 
every victory by conflict, let him sing, all the way, 
"Higher! higher!" and he will find that the air grows 
purer as he ascends. By persevering toil he lifts him- 
self above the range of temptations that once endangered 
his soul. The heavenly landscape opens with increased 
clearness and beauty, and as he passes from height to 
height he catches occasional glimpses of the golden gates 
and the sapphire walls of the city that hath everlasting 
foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. 

Let every one then press forward, determined to do, 
as far as he can, the duty he sees before him. All — 
no matter what their creeds may be, no matter what 
their station in life may be, no matter what their own 
course of conduct may be — can not help admiring the 
course of one who is moved by a sense of duty. All 



624 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



who wish to stand well in the community in which they 
live profess, at least, to be governed by duty. Many, 
no doubt, arc hypocritical in this matter, but the very 
fact that they deem it best to make such claims shows 
the high regard the doing of duty holds in the public 
estimation. Others may be anxious to do their duty, 
and yet be mistaken in what duty is. In general, this 
is but a poor excuse, as it is easy to decide what duty is 
before us. The sympathy and encouragement of others 
is ofttimes of great help, but each soul has mainly to 
determine for himself in what his duty consists. 

Every man should regulate his actions by his own 
conscience, and without undue anxiety as to the opinion 
of the world at large. No one is prepared to say on the 
spur of the moment what he would do in a given state 
of circumstances. When the circumstances come, the 
probabilities arc that he views things in a much differ- 
ent light from what he expected to. The voice of expe- 
rience will soon teach us that, if we make the praise or 
blame of others the rule of our conduct, we shall be dis- 
tracted by a boundless variety of irreconcilable judg- 
ments, and so held in suspense between contrary im- 
pulses. The probabilities are that if, with all the light 
attainable, we are only true to our sense of right and 
wrong, only anxious to fulfill the golden rule, we shall 
not greatly err. So let each one determine to do what 
is right, and, in thus fulfilling duty, rest assured that the 
smile of an approving conscience will be yours, and the 
time will come when that will be worth more than all 
the world besides to you. 




CHRIST RAISING LAZARUS. 



626 



WELL-DOING. 



627 



&5ELL-DOING. 




HERE is scarcely a position in life where we 
can not be of help to our fellow-men, if we will 
only exert ourselves. There are none so mis- 
erable, so fallen in wretchedness, but what are 



deserving of help. Their course of action may have been 
such that we find much to condemn ; but they are hu- 
man beings, they are our brethren, they are possessed 
of an immortal soul, and we are none of us so free from 
wrong-doing that we are not bound to bestow on them 
what succor we can. The higher order of animals will 
not willingly leave one of their number to sutfer, but 
they will risk even life itself to render them assistance. 
We have our organized charities, and, in general, recog- 
nize the right of unfortunates to call on the more fortu- 
nate ones for aid. In times of great and sudden danger, 
such as conflagrations, shipwrecks, and lamentable acci- 
dents, we admire and applaud those heroes who risk 
even their own life to save others. At such times hero- 
ism often appears where least expected ; the innate no- 
bility of man will show itself in such crises. To such 
occasions we do not refer, but to that quiet, unobtrusive 
helpfulness which every one has opportunities to bestow. 
It often requires of us nothing but a kind word, or our 
sympathy or moral support. 

How much we admire those men and women whose 
object in life seems to do good ! They move through 
life as a band of music moves down the street, flinging 



628 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



out pleasures on either side through the air to every 
one far and near that can listen. Some men till the air 
with their presence and sweetness, as orchards in Octo- 
ber days till the air with the perfume of ripe fruit. 
Some women cling to their own houses, like the honey- 
suckle over the door, yet like it sweeten all the region 
with the subtle fragrance of their goodness. There are 
trees of righteousness which are ever dropping precious 
fruit around them; there are lives that shine like star- 
beams, or charm the heart like songs sung upon holy 
days. How great a blessing it is to hold the royal gifts 
• if the soul so that they shall be music to some, and fra- 
grance to others, and life to all! It would be no un- 
worthy object to live for: to make the power which we 
have within us the breath of other men's joys; to scatter 
sunshine where only clouds and shadows reign; to fill 
the atmosphere where earth's weary toilers must stand 
with a brightness which they can not create for them- 
selves, but which they long for, enjoy, and appreciate. 

Gifts of money, by those who have the means, is the 
most easy form in which benevolence can be gratified, 
and it often requires the least sacrifice of personal com- 
fort or self-love. But the obligation to render assistance 
may be met in a higher degree, and often much more 
usefully to others, by personal exertion and personal 
kindness. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold, but 
the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can 
buy. To advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, com- 
fort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost 
every day of our lives. Every one has frequent oppor- 
tunities of rendering assistance, softening the envious, 
quieting the angry, speaking a good word for those de- 
serving it. To be full of goodness, full of cheerfulness, 



WELL-DOING. 



629 



full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, cause a man to 
carry blessings of which he is himself as unconscious as 
a lamp is of its own shining. Such an one moves on 
human life, as stars move on dark seas to bewildered 
mariners; as the sun wheels, in his course bringing all 
the seasons with him. 

Nothing is more odious than that selfishness which 
wraps a man up in himself and his own concerns, and 
prevents his being moved with either the joys or the 
sorrows of another. Let us, then, cherish sympathy. By 
attention and exercise it may be improved in every man. 
It is by sympathy that we enter into the concerns of 
others, that we are moved as they are moved, and are 
never suffered to be indifferent spectators of almost any 
thing which men can do or suffer. Sympathy may be 
considered as a sort of substitution, by which we are 
put into the place of another man, and affected in many 
respects as he is affected. Sympathy bids us speak the 
kind word. It is the pleasant word, the kind word, that 
helps; and a man who has these at his command is sure 
to be a helper to others in the highway of life, along 
which so many are travelers. A tear, dropped in the 
silence of a sick chamber, often rings in heaven with a 
sound which belongs not to earthly trumpets or bells. 

Why is it so many people keep all their pleasant 
thoughts and kind words about others bottled and sealed 
until death appears on the scene? Then they are indeed 
free to express them, but the object of them hears them 
not. Many a person goes through life with scarcely a 
bright, cheerful, encouraging, hopeful word, though they 
may give out their life freely for others. They may not 
be brilliant or great, but they are faithful. They may 
have many things to discourage them. People may be- 



630 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



lieve they are good, but no one takes the trouble to say 
a kindly word or a pleasant thing. 15 Lit when they come 
to die there are many tongues to speak their praise) 
Mention is made of their self-denying life, of their hu- 
mility and pureness of heart. Enough kind things are 
said over their coffins, or around their graves, to have 
blessed them and made them happy during all their 
weary journey of life. But their ears arc now closed, 
and tin y can not hear a word that is spoken. Their 
hearts are stilled, and can not be thrilled by grateful 
sounds. Love blossoms out too late. Kindness comes 
when the life can not receive its blessings. 

Thousands of men breathe, move, and live, pass off 
tin' stage of life, and are heard of no more. They did 
not partake of good in the world, and none were blessed 
by them; none could point to them as the means of their 
redemption; not a line they wrote, not a word they 
spoke, could be recalled; and so they perished; their 
light went out in darkness, and they were not remem- 
bered more than insects of yesterday. Let us learn a 
lesson from this. Live for something. Do good, and 
leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storm 
of time can never destroy. Write your name in kind- 
ness, love, and mercy, on the hearts of thousands you 
come in contact with year by year; and you will never 
be forgotten. Your name, your deeds, will be as legible 
on the hearts you leave behind you as the stars on the 
brow of evening. Good deeds will shine as the stars of 
heaven. 

The whole world calls for new work and nobleness. 
We are asked to subdue mutiny, discord, wide-spread de- 
spair, by manfulness, justice, mercy, and wisdom. To 
make some part of God's creation more fruitful, better, 



WELL-DOING. 



631 



a more beautiful place in which to live ; to make some 
human heart a little wiser, more manful, happier, more 
blessed; oh, it is a great work. He who diffuses the 
most happiness, and mitigates the most distress within 
his own circle, is undoubtedly the best friend of his 
country, since nothing more is necessary than for all men 
to imitate his conduct, to make the greatest part of the 
misery of the word cease in a moment. While the de- 
sire, then, of some is to shine in society, of some to 
govern, and others to accumulate wealth, let one great 
passion alone influence our breasts, the passion which 
reason ratifies, which conscience approves, which Heaven 
inspires — that of being and doing good. 

We are indeed made to be social beings. In all the 
great joys and conflicts of life, we long for the j)resence 
and sympathy of friends. We feel as if we must tell 
somebody the crushing grief or the exultant joy with 
which our hearts are full. Knowledge confers little 
satisfaction, unless we can communicate it to others. 
Riches corrode and canker the soul if kept only for self. 
The impulse of any strong emotion is to make itself 
known. Here is where the peculiar office of sympathy 
comes in. It is a kindness to listen to the story of 
joys or sorrows of others, and to show that we rejoice 
or suffer with them. Such a course multiplies joys, 
but divides sorrows. The mother, whose child has been 
taken away by death, often feels that no sorrow can be 
like hers, and for years she will tell the tale of her afflic- 
tion to all who will hear, to keep the heart from break- 
ing with the pent-up grief. In such cases, both the 
joyful and the afflicted would feel it to be more than 
human nature could bear not to have some one to 
whom the heart could pour forth its ecstasy of emotion. 



632 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



There is no feeling more universal in the human 
heart than that of loneliness. At the outset of life, every 
face -lows, every heart has its high hopes, and no one 
thinks much of the insufficiency of the things of time. 
But when the middle hour of life draws on, not more 
than one-third of the faces are still bright — two-thirds 
are disappointed, and almost discouraged. When the 
evening conies, not more than one in a thousand carries 
the light still in his eye and on his forehead. The nine 
hundred and ninety-nine have fallen by the way. They 
have tasted the cold selfishness of the world, their breast^ 
and their sides have been pierced by the jagged points 
and the poisonous thorns against which rude winds and 
struggling waves have dashed them. Why should we 
not all sweeten, as much as possible, by kindness 
and sympathy, such lives? At a touch from some 
passing thing, a dew-laden bush at morn shakes off 
the weight of the burden it has borne. So, ofttimes 
grief-laden hearts shake off their burdens when touched 
by some momentary act of kindness that costs its giver 
little or nothing. 

One who is really anxious to be of service to his 
fellow-men, and to make his life glorious with kindly 
deeds, need not wait for great occasions in which to dis- 
tinguish himself. In every earthly dwelling there is 
somebody to sutfer pain. In every human family there 
is somebody over which the pale shadow of sickness has 
passed. In every company of human beings there are 
brows furrowed with care, and looks charged with sor- 
row, and frames bowing under heavy burdens, and signs 
of approaching decay that must destroy at last. To all 
such sympathy can be extended; and to mitigate an- 
other's grief is to alleviate or dispel your own. A 



WELL-DOING. 



633 



good deed is never lost; lie who sows courtesy reaps 
friendship; he who plants kindness gathers love; pleas- 
ure bestowed upon a grateful mind is never sterile. 

In the heraldry of heaven, goodness precedes great- 
ness; so on earth it is the more powerful. The lowly 
and the humble may frequently do more in their own 
limited sphere than the gifted. But all can accomplish 
much if we will only do the little acts of kindness for 
which opportunity is given. He who waits to do a great 
deal of good at once will never do anything. Life is 
made up of little things. It is very rarely that an oc- 
casion is offered for doing a great deal at once. True 
greatness consists in being great in little things. The 
greatest works are accomplished little by little. So, if 
we would do much good in the world, we must be will- 
ing to do good in little things, in little acts of benevo- 
lence, one after another, speaking a timely, a good word 
here, and setting a good example always. 

Some men never can find anything of good in another. 
They doubt, they insinuate, they scoff at their preten- 
sions. It is far better to search for the good instead of 
the bad. Let us beware of imitating such natures. 
They betray their own heart by their actions. A carrion 
bird may impose on some as an eagle, but its choice of 
food betrays it. It is unfortunately true that, if we only 
desire, we can find much to condemn. Every thing in 
the world is characterized by imperfection. The best 
people have many faults. The clearest mind only sees 
through a glass darkly. The purest heart is not without 
spot. All the intercourse of society, all the transactions 
of business, all our estimates of human conduct and mo- 
tive, must be based upon the sad assumption that we can 
not wholly trust either ourselves or our fellow-men. 



634 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Every heart has its grief, every house has its skeleton, 
every character is marred with weakness and imperfec- 
tion. All this can, of course, be discovered if we search 
for it. But there is nothing wholly bad. All men have 
impulses to good, and in every character there is some- 
thing to admire. Why not speak of these good points? 
The world is dreary enough without our searching for 
the bad. 

Let us not be weary in well-doing. No matter what 
our position, we can find something to do that will ren- 
der tlic world better and happier for our having lived in 
it. We must begin, and labor steadily, faithfully, hope- 
fully, till the work is finished — till the journey of life is 
over. All those who work in the vineyard are helpers, 
beautifiers. The teacher who conducts the little child 
through the alphabet on to college, the platform where 
diplomas are awarded, is a helper. The child w ho digs in 
the ground and plants flower-seeds over the grave of a 
mother, father, or sister, is a beautifier of earth, and, in his 
childish way, is helping others. The housewife who keeps 
her house in order, whose law is neatness and order, who 
makes her abode, however humble it may be, a true 
home — one of which her children will think of in after 
years with tear-suffused eve — is a ministering angel. 
The father who patiently takes up the burden of life, 
smooths the paths for the little feet of those whom God 
has given him, and sets before them a good example, 
is a helper in the vineyard. There is work, and enough 
for all to do. 

We often do more good by our sympathies than by 
our labors, and render to the world a more lasting 
service by absence of jealousy, and recognition of merit, 
than we could render by the efforts of straining ambi- 



WELL-DOING. 



635 



tion. We live in a world which is full of misery and 
ignorance, and the plain duty of all is to try and make 
the little corner we can influence somewhat less misera- 
ble, and somewhat less ignorant, than it was before we 
entered it. It is a dreadful thing for the human heart 
to sink in wretchedness and despair. It is worth a life- 
time of exertion to rescue just one from such a fate. If 
you can lie down upon the bed of death and ask, Of 
what avail has been my living ? and there comes before 
you but one instance where you have saved a brother 
from sinking in despair, such a recollection will be worth 
more to you than the possession of houses, or lands, or 
gold. But how hard it will be to die and not leave the 
world any better for one's life in it! 

We can do more good by being good than any other 
way, for there is transcendent power in example. We 
reform others unconsciously when we walk uprightly. 
In all stages of life example is the governing motive. 
A total stranger to men and things, the child takes ex- 
ample for his first and surest guide. By example he 
learns what is harmless and what is hurtful ; what is 
pleasing and what not. He observes every person's 
conduct, and endeavors to act as he sees others act, 
especially those with whom he lives and on whom he 
depends. A sense of dependence, and a desire to please, 
are habitual dispositions in children, which continually 
impel to follow the example of others. The power 
of example is no less real in youth, manhood, and old 
age. It takes mankind by the hand in infancy, and leads 
them through all the remaining stages of life. It is the 
first law they know, and the only law they keep. Its 
authority is gentle, though always irresistible; and its 
precepts are pleasing, though often severe and tyrannical. 



63G 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



We must not make the mistake of supposing that 
"well-doing" requires of us to be on the lookout for 
extra occasions in which to display it. On the contrary, 
it displays itself in every-day life, and in the discharge 
of every-day duties, in the various positions of life we 
may fill. It is required of us in our relation of parents. 
A child should receive from us something more than pro- 
tection and love. We are to guide them carefully; to 
instruct them fully in the path by which they are to 
journey when they may no longer cling to our hand. 
We arc to teach them, so that when we leave them to go 
<>n their way alone they may know how to steer for the safe 
haven; and no act of well-doing brings its reward more 
promptly as we go along than faithfulness in this. It is 
required of us as children, especially when our parents 
grow old. It seems to us that the world is strangely 
indillcrent on this point. If there arc any human be- 
ings that have the right to claim from others affectionate 
love, protection, and regard, it is aged parents of their 
children. The sunset of their life draws nigh, the shad- 
ows are lengthening before them; how anxious children 
should be, then, to repay their parents for the many years 
of care they received from them! 

When you see their powers failing, do not notice it. It 
is enough for them to feel it without a reminder. You 
may give them the best room in the house; you may 
garnish it with pictures and flowers ; you may give them 
the best seat in your parlor, the highest seat of honor at 
your table; but if, by your conduct, you lead them to 
feel they have passed their usefulness, you plant thorns 
in their bosom that will rankle there while life lasts. 
Do not ignore their taste and judgment. It may be that 
in their early day, and in the circle where they moved, 



WELL-DOING. 



637 



they were as much sought and honored as you are now. 
Do not, in word or deed, imply to them that the customs 
of their day are obnoxious in good society, and that they 
are stepping down from respectability as they descend 
the hill-side of life. Always bear in mind that the cus- 
toms of which you are now so tenacious may be equally 
repugnant to the next generation ; and remember the years 
are rapidly rolling around. You will soon stand where 
they do now, and imagine how thankful you will then 
be for the attentions it is now in your power to bestow. 

It is required of us, also, in our relation as friends. 
Man was not made to go through the world alone. We 
associate with ourselves kindred spirits. Let us ever 
remember how much of the joy of life flows from the 
sympathetic mingling of congenial spirits, and seek to 
bind such to you closer and closer with the golden links 
of affection's easy bondage. Who that has experienced 
the joys of friendship, and values sympathy and affec- 
tion, would not lose all that is beautiful in nature's 
scenery rather than be robbed of the hidden treasures 
of the heart? But friendship does not require of us 
to gloss over their faults. We are to deal kindly and 
justly with them, as with all men. 

We are ever to remember that life is short ; that, even 
if we improve all our opportunities, we can not accom- 
plish very much. This should not discourage us; but 
let us press forward more earnestly. Do something 
worth living for, worth dying for. Do something to 
show you have a mind and a heart and a soul within 
you. That is a good day in which you make some one 
happy. It is astonishing how little it takes to do that ; 
feel that the day is wasted in which you have not succeeded 
in this respect. Let us constantly feel that we will some 



038 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



day come to the end of life; and then one important 
question for your soul to answer will be: "What have 
you done to help others? to lift the load of care that 
comes like shadows of the night to weigh down men and 
women and children nil over the land?" Happy is he 
who then can answer that he has done what he could. 
Let us so live that we can all make this answer. 

^>f$f<^ 

Integrity. 

HAT men sometimes call greatness in their fel- 
low-men is often of very little importance when 
viewed in the light of eternal destiny. Money, 
stocks, land, or other possession, can not be 
taken hence. They who are the richest in worldly 
goods are often the poorest in regard to moral wealth. 
He who has sought to know his duty, and then fulfill it, 
who has lived an upright, honest life, is rich in soul- 
wealth, though he may not be so in worldly matters. 
Their lives are like way-side flowers. We have seen 
them all our lives, and, therefore, do not know or feel 
their beauty; or they are like the beautiful creations of 
art that are in old cathedrals, covered by the dirt and 
moss of ages. Men go by them, and do not know that 
they have passed forms that gave expression to the 
thoughts of ancient masters. Xo one cares for them, or 
notices them, until some gifted man comes along, and 
then we learn that the things which all along our life we 
thought homely are beautiful beyond description. 

In our immediate neighborhood there may be living 




INTEGRITY. 



639 



men of acknowledged integrity of character ; they may 
be poor, they may be unnoticed; but the time is surely 
coming when we will be compelled to acknowledge the 
beauty and purity of their lives. Men arc as ships sent 
forth upon the sea; and that man who gains the port of 
heaven, though he may be battered and bruised by the 
conflict, so much so that, as far as this life is concerned, 
we arc ready to say he is wrecked, is, after all, a success- 
ful man. But he who founders on the beach, no matter 
how close it be to the open gates of heaven, has made a 
bad voyage, though his log-book may tell of sunshine 
and fair winds all the way to the shoal whereon he 
struck and found destruction. Prize not thyself by what 
thou hast, but by what thou art. He who values a 
jewel by its golden setting, or a book by its silver clasps, 
or a man by his estates, errs. 

Our principles are the springs of our action ; our 
actions, the springs of our happiness or misery. Too 
much care, therefore, can not be taken in forming our 
principles. They are our only true guide. You may 
follow pleasure, and be led along the flowery path to the 
sound of music and the step of dances for a while; but 
the end will be pain and sorrow\ You may follow pride, 
but you will find it a cruel master, crushing with heavy 
burdens and scourging with scorpions all the way, and 
bringing to shame at last. You may follow selfishness, 
and it may promise every indulgence at first, but it will 
poison every fountain, and blast every flower, and wither 
all the joys of life as you go on. You may follow ambi- 
tion, and climb for a while the dazzling and dizzy steep 
of fame, only to be hurled down with a more furious and 
fatal descent at last. You may follow the enticing spirit 
of procrastination, and put otf the most urgent duty to a 

38 



(340 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



more convenient season, but you will be left to mourn at 
last. But if you make simple integrity of character, 
honesty, and a desire to do right your ruling principles, 
the sorrows, trials, and losses of earth will be minister- 
ing angels to help you on your way. Through all the 
perils and temptations of earth and time you will come 
at last to llit* heavenly Zion, with songs and everlasting 
joy upon your head. 

Whatever convenience may be thought to be in false- 
hood and dissimulation, it is soon over, but the incon- 
venience of it is perpetual, because it brings a man uns 
del an everlasting jealousy and suspicion, so that he is 
not believed when he speaks the truth, nor trusted when, 
perhaps, he means honestly. When a man has once for- 
feited the reputation of his integrity he is set fast, and 
nothing will then serve his turn, neither truth nor false- 
hood; but the man who is so conscious of the rectitude 
of his intentions as to be willing to open his bosom to 
the inspection of the world is in possession of one of the 
strongest pillars of a decided character. The course of 
such a man will be firm and steady, because he has 
nothing to fear from the world, and is sure of the appro- 
bation and support of heaven. 

That integrity of plans and actions which we justly 
admire in men, like every other great virtue, shows itself 
in little details. Many men fail in life from the want, as 
they are too ready to suppose, of those great occasions 
wherein they might have shown their trustworthiness 
and their integrity. But all such persons should 
remember that, in order to try whether a vessel be 
leaky, we first prove it with water before we trust it 
with wine. The more minute, trivial, and, we may say, 
every-day opportunities of being just and upright are 



INTEGRITY. 



641 



constantly occurring to every one. It is an unimpeach- 
able character in these lesser things that almost inva- 
riably prepares and produces those very opportunities of 
greater advancement and of higher confidence which turn 
out so rich a harvest, but which those alone are permit- 
ted to reap who have previously sown. 

Integrity of character is in the power of all to follow 
and of all to attain. It is subject to no disappointments, 
since he that perseveres makes every difficulty an ad- 
vancement and every contest a victory. Sincerely to 
aspire after integrity is to gain it, and zealously to labor 
after her wages is to receive them. The arts of deceit 
and cunning do continually grow weaker and less effectual 
and serviceable to them that use them, whereas integrity 
gains strength by use, and the more and longer any 
man practices it the greater service it does him by con- 
firming his reputation, and encouraging those with whom 
he hath to do to repose the greater trust and confidence 
in him, which is a very great advantage in the business 
and affairs of life. 

Integrity of character shows itself in truthfulness, not 
only of speech, but of action. Deceit assumes many 
forms — it may be called diplomacy, or expediency, or 
moral reservation, and, under one guise or another, it is 
sadly prevalent. It may show itself in reticency, on the 
one hand, or exaggeration on the other; in disguise or 
concealment ; in pretended concurrence in others' opin- 
ions ; in assuming an attitude of conformity which is de- 
ceptive ; in making promises, or allowing them to be 
implied, which are never intended to be performed ; or 
even in refraining from speaking the truth, when to do 
so is a duty. All this is opposed to honesty and integ- 
rity of character. 



642 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



We arc not to make the mistake of supposing that 
we are at all times called on to explain our plans and 
intentions to other people. This would be simply folly. 
All we wish to convey is, that where it is our duty to 
speak the truth we arc not to deceive by action any more 
than by word of month. There arc men of narrow 
minds and dishonest natures who pride themselves upon 
their smartness in matters of this sort. Business, or 
institutions, or systems based upon any such expedients 
must necessarily prove false and hollow. Though a lie 
1 e ever so well dressed, it will be exposed in time. 
Downright lying, though bolder and more vicious, is 
even less contemptible than such kind of shuffling and 
equivocation. 

Truthfulness is at the foundation of all personal ex- 
cellence. It. exhibits itself in conduct. It is rectitude — 
truth in action — and shines through every word and deed. 
It means reliableness, and convinces other men that it 
can be trusted. A man is already of consequence in the 
v, irld when it is known that ho can be relied on; that 
when he says he knows a thing, he docs know it; that 
when he says ho will do a thing, ho can and docs do it. 
This reliableness becomes a passport to the general es- 
teem and confidence of mankind. Such persons may be 
misrepresented by some and misunderstood by others ; 
misfortune and adversity may for a time overtake them, 
but, with patience and endurance, they will eventually 
inspire the respect and command the confidence which 
they really deserve. It would be an unspeakable advan- 
tage, both to the public and privately, if men would con- 
sider that great truth, that no man is wise or safe, but 
he that is honest. 

We are all forming our characters, and establishing 



INTEGEITY. 



643 



the principles on which we act. Every little act is of 
consequence in this matter. The force of habit is very 
great. We have watched men fresco large rooms. How 
soft the material when first applied, how soon it hardens ! 
We paint our lives in fresco. The soft and fusil plaster 
of the moment hardens under every stroke of the brush 
into eternal rock. Thus our character, our reputation, is 
forming, and thus are forming our principles. We can 
build up an honored name in the community ; we can 
be spoken of as basing all our actions on the principles of 
integrity and love to God and man, or w T e can so act that 
others can not thus honor us. Before us lead out two 
paths. The experience of the wisest and best of man- 
kind assure us that the path of integrity and honor con- 
ducts at last to peace of mind, which may or may not 
be accompanied by material prosperity. The other may 
seem to lead us more surely to wealth or fame, yet it is 
indeed but seldom, for men always prefer gold to dross ; 
but we have the moral certainty that we will lose the 
respect of the best class of citizens. Our own conscience 
may, indeed, be too seared to trouble us with tenderness 
of feeling, yet, if we only prolong the mental vision far 
enough, we can not help admitting that the time will 
come when we will bitterly regret our course. 

That nation is on the downward course whose citi- 
zens fail to appreciate integrity of character, strive for 
its possession itself, and applaud it in others. So, too, a 
community, in order to be prosperous, in order to attract 
to it a good class of citizens, must show that it appre- 
ciates integrity of character. A young man with life 
before him, and deeply desirous, as all are, to make a 
success of it, can not establish a better foundation than 
integrity of character. We take it for granted that 



6-14 



THE BIBLE COMrANIOX. 



every one desires to succeed. Some have poor ideas of 
what success is, and suppose that a successful life means 
simply gathering money. It is a great deal better to 
have that for an aim of life than to have no aim at all. 
1 *ut if we are going to succeed at all in life, we must be 
willing to pay the price. We would laugh at a lawyer 
who expected to succeed in his profession, and yet was 
Hot willing to train his mind by study. Integrity is a 
trait of character which is essential to success in any 
calling. A person may achieve temporary success with- 
out it, but sooner or later the lack of it will be dis- 
covered, and ruin will inevitably ensue. 

All the machinery of a watch may be of the highest 
workmanship and materials, yet if the mainspring be 
defective it will not long keep good time. A ship may 
be provided with all that is considered requisite in a fast- 
sailing, staunch, well-built ship, yet if the rudder be 
wanting, the ship is in danger of being cast on the 
breakers. A man may have all the faculties of a suc- 
cessful man; his mind may be clear, active, and well- 
disciplined by study; he may possess good health, and 
he physically strong; yet, if lacking integrity of character, 
he is as a watch with a defective mainspring; or the 
ship lacking the rudder. There is no telling when the 
crisis will arise that will make painfully apparent this 
defect of character, and then all hopes of success are 
gone. 

We all know of men who are strictly upright, as far 
as we know, in their dealings. They scorn to deceive, 
and, as far as we can perceive, are men of integrity, yet 
their lives have always been passed in obscurity. Dis- 
couragements have waited upon them all their life. 
Poverty has been their companion. Shall we say they 



INTEGRITY. 



645 



have failed in life? What is that phantom we all 
pursue? Success. Does it always mean the acquisition 
of property? Not necessarily. Is it fame? Not always. 
In fact, if we would study the question, we would quickly 
perceive that Avealth, fame, and power are but the acci- 
dents of success; that even in this world some of the 
most successful men have been destitute of some or all 
of these; and some men who have gained them have 
been unsuccessful. If, as we all profess to believe, man 
is immortal, if somewhere this life goes on forever, how 
strange we should ever conclude that success in life is 
wealth or fame or power! We can take none of these 
things with us beyond the grave. But our character 
goes with us, passes the portal of the grave, and influ- 
ences our life beyond. 

Let us not make the mistake, then, of supposing that 
integrity of character always insures its possessor of 
worldly success; that is, wealth and fame. This is never 
promised as a reward of virtue. And to so regard 
integrity is to lose sight of its real nature. The acqui- 
sition of wealth depends upon the due exercise of a great 
number of faculties, and Providence may not have so 
ordained our lot that we are to have opportunity to 
acquire it. The best mainspring in the world can not, 
by itself, constitute a watch ; there is needed a great deal 
of other machinery. The best rudder made by man is 
not alone sufficient to rank a ship first-class. If we aim 
to acquire integrity of character, we may not receive 
with it worldly success. On the other hand, if we reach 
after success without integrity, we are reasonably sure 
of failure. 

There is needed no definition to define integrity. It 
includes many virtues : truthfulness in actions and speech ; 



&4G 



THE BIBLE COMPANION". 



faithfulness in well-doing; honesty in dealing; a stern de- 
termination to do the duty we see before us. There is 
no one but what can live such a life, if they will. We 
can not by choosing become rich; our best-laid plans in 
that regard may fail. We can not certainly enjoy the 
blessings of good health, even if we obey all its known 
rules, for we may have inherited structural weaknesses 
from our parents. Fame and power can, of course, be 
the enjoyments of but few. But no one need fail of pos- 
sessing integrity of character — and we know that its ad- 
vantages abide with us forever. Worldly honors may 
serve us for a time, as it were for an hour, but they will 
be of no use to us beyond this world. No one will have 
heard a word of our honors in the other life. Your 
glory, your shame, your ambition, and all the treasures 
for which you push hard and sacrifice much, will be like 
wreaths of smoke; for those things which you mostly 
seek, and for which you spend your life, only tarry with 
you while you are on this side of the flood. 

Men of genuine excellence in every station of life — 
rni ii of industry, of integrity, of high principle, of stir- 
ring honesty of purpose — command the spontaneous hom- 
age of mankind. It is natural to believe in such men, 
to have confidence in them, and to imitate them. All 
that is good in the world is upheld by them, and, with- 
out their presence in it, the world would not be worth 
living in. On every side, then, we see reasons why we 
should strive after integrity of character. There is no 
better provision for the uses of either private or public 
life. Of the two, it is far more important to its possessor 
than scholastic acquirements. Good sense, guided by 
rectitude of intention and disciplined by experience, 
issues in practical wisdom. Goodness, in a measure, im- 



INTEGRITY. 



647 



plies wisdom — the highest kind of wisdom — the union of 
the worldly with the spiritual. The correspondence of 
wisdom and goodness are manifold ; and that they will 
accompany each other is to be inferred, not only because 
man's wisdom makes them good, but because their good- 
ness makes them wise. 

Now, to sum the whole matter up, we see that the law is 
imperative that an individual, a community, or a nation, 
that would have character and permanent influence, must 
be governed by integrity of character ; that it is in the 
power of all to acquire the same ; that though it does 
not promise worldly success, it does promise peace of 
mind and ultimate success. He who has faithfully 
sought after integrity of character does not seek the ap- 
probation of the multitude, but of Him who is the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever. The hopes inspired in 
his breast are enlarged and infinite, inasmuch as they 
extend beyond present things, even to things eternal, and 
they will cease only in the reality of deathless enjoyment. 
In the storms, and in the tempests of life, honor is not 
to be depended on, because she herself partakes of the 
tumult; she also is buffeted by the waves, and borne 
along by the whirlwind. But principles of integrity are 
above the storm, and have an anchor sure and steadfast, 
because it is cast into heaven. No man can purchase 
integrity of character too dear ; for it is the only thing 
whose value must ever increase with the price it has 
cost us. Our integrity is never worth so much as when 
we have parted with our all to keep it. 



(>4S 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



I^INDNESS. 



F our life be a journey, acts of kindness are 
the flowers that enliven the way; if life be a 
voyage, kindly acts are gentle breezes that 
waft us heavenward. If our life be cast in 
pleasant places, such acts are the gilded frames inclos- 
ing memory's choicest pictures. If our life be cast in 
sorrow, and heaviness of heart be our portion, it is still 
kindness that renders it more endurable. It enters the 
abodes of sorrow and wretchedness, and happiness and 
peace arc in its train. It knocks at the lonely and dis- 
consolate heart, and speaks words of encouragement and 
joy. It graces alike the palaces of the rich, the cabins 
of the poor. The wise, as well as the learned, acknowl- 
edge its -way. Wherever there is a human heart — the 
heart that fears and trembles — there is the heart that 
responds to kindness. In the North, the East, the 
South, and the West, there are hearts that can not 
shut themselves up to the sweet influence of kind looks, 
words, and actions. 

Kindness cherishes hopeful and generous thoughts 
of others. It is charitable, gentle, and truthful. It is 
a discerner of good. It turns to the brightest side of 
things, and its face is ever directed toward happiness. 
It sees the glory in the grass, the sunshine on the flower. 
It encourages happy thoughts, and lives in an atmosphere 
of cheerfulness. It costs but little, and yet is invaluable; 
for it blesses its possessor and grows up in abundant 




KINDNESS. 



649 



happiness in the bosoms of others. Even its sorrows 
are linked with pleasures, and its very tears are sweet. 
Kind acts make little noise ; like unobtrusive violets, they 
love the shade, and are sustained by the dew of thought- 
fulness; and though, like violets, they make little show, 
they shed a sweet odor on all around. 

A man becomes rich in his own stock of pleasures in 
proportion to the amount he distributes to others. His 
kindness will evoke kindness, and his happiness be in- 
creased by his own benevolence. Kind words cost no 
more than unkind ones. Kind words produce kind 
actions, not only on the part of him to whom they 
are addressed, but on the part of him by whom they are 
employed. An effort of beneficence may not benefit 
those for whom it was intended ; but when wisely directed 
it must benefit the kindly doer. Good and friendly con- 
duct may meet with an unworthy and ungrateful return ; 
but the absence of gratitude on the part of the receiver 
can not destroy the self-approbation which recompenses 
the giver, and we may scatter the seeds of courtesy and 
kindliness around us at so little expense. Some of them 
will inevitably fall on good ground, and grow up into 
benevolence in the minds of others ; and all of them will 
bear fruit of happiness in the bosom from whence they 
spring. Once blessed are all the virtues always ; twice 
blessed, sometimes. 

Kindness is like the bright shining sun ; selfishness, 
the clouds that conceal the light. Some natures pass a 
life that is mainly clouded ; only occasionally does the 
sun shine through the rifts, and how beautiful by con- 
trast is at such times the illuminated landscape. But 
there are other natures that are always cloudless ! With 
them a cloud is the exception, shining is the rule; and 



650 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



how full of influence for good is such a life! Kindness 
is the most powerful instrument in the world to move 
men's hearts, and a word in kindness spoken will often 
do more for the furtherance of a cause than any amount 
of angry reasoning. It is the old story of the traveler 
ami his cloak over again. When the winds blew cold 
ami fierce, the cloak was only more closely wrapped 
around him; when the sun shone warmly in a cloudless 
sky, tlit* cloak was discarded. 

In the race of life, kindness of disposition is of almost 
as much importance as talents and requirements, and is 
even more influential in giving direction to a man's 
tastes ami character. It is the golden key that unlocks 
hearts. It not only teaches politeness and courtesy, but 
gives insight and unfolds wisdom, and may almost be 
regarded as the crowning grace of humanity; while rude- 
ness and gruffness bar doors and shut hearts, kindness 
acts as an "open sesame" everywhere. Doors unbar 
before it, and it is a passport to the hearts of everybody, 
young and old. Therefore, we see that this quality has 
greatly to do in the advancement of one's self in life. It 
is certain our happiness in life depends mainly upon 
our temperament, and especially upon kindliness of 
manner and willingness to oblige others. Such disposi- 
tions are like small change in the intercourse of business, 
always in demand. 

Beware of suppressing kindly sentiments, if you 
would give them voice when they will be most effective. 
Kind words spoken in the ears of a living man, woman, 
or child are worth a great deal more than the most com- 
plimentary utterances over the coffin of the dead. The 
time to carry flowers is when they can be looked upon 
and handled, when their fragrance can be inhaled and 



KINDNESS. 



651 



their beauty enjoyed ; when the attention bestowed will 
warm the heart and awaken more. Kindness displayed 
in the family and social circle, amid the struggle and 
conflicts of life, may lift up the fallen, cheer the fainting 
heart, convert sorrow into joy, and thus cause many a 
flower to spring up and bloom along the rugged path- 
ways of this world. Were this done, there would be 
smiles instead of tears, rosy cheeks where now are dull 
and haggard ones, light in the place of darkness, and a 
terrestrial paradise, perhaps, in the raging, warring ele- 
ments of an earthly pandemonium. 

Those who have experienced great sorrows know by 
bitter-sweet experience how potent are kindly acts kindly 
expressed to throw sunshine into the mind. Such acts 
are sources of great influence over others. Would you 
exercise power over others ? Enchain their hearts with 
fetters of kindness, forged by love. W r hen dark and 
gloomy days settle down over them, extend to them a 
helping hand — not necessarily that it may give them 
gifts, but assurances that you are interested in them. 
As the magnet bends the needle from its course, so shall 
you prevail to bend them to your will. Parents should 
be as much concerned to make their children kind, gen- 
tle, obliging and respectful to all around as to provide 
for them a common and useful knowledge. 

The language of reason, unaccompanied by kindness, 
will often fail of making an impression ; it has no effect 
on the understanding, because it touches not the heart. 
The language of kindness, unassociated with reason, will 
frequently be unable to persuade, because, though it may 
gain upon the affections, it wants that which is necessary 
to convince the judgment. But let reason and kindness 
be united in a discourse, and seldom will even pride or 



652 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



prejudice find it easy to resist; and in this matter doubt 
not but that kindness is full as important a factor as is 
reason. It is the experience of the world that men are 
swayed and moved through the feelings and not the 
intellect. When we sit in darkness, and one comes and 
leads us to the light, he has made himself our leader, 
and we will readily follow him, even if we see no very 
good reason for so doing. 

There is much that is dross in earthly pleasure. Ask 
the man who has accumulated his fortune whether his 
happiness has increased or not, and he wonders you 
should ask it. The purest happiness in the world arises 
from the performance of kindly acts. There is no really 
good act but what is a kind act, simply because all vir- 
tuous acts are designed to secure the greatest good of all 
concerned; and this is but stating the law of kindness in 
a now way. I low easy it is for one benevolent being to 
diffuse pleasure around him ; and how truly is a kind 
heart a fountain of gladness, making everything in its 
vicinity to freshen into smiles. As the sun dispels the 
gloom of autumn day, even so do kindly acts dispel the 
gloom of life when sorrow's clouds o'ercast it. 

Well does one writer say : " If there be a pleasure 
on earth which angels can not enjoy, and Avhich they 
might almost envy man the possession of, it is the power 
of relieving distress." This, however, is our birthright. 
Every kindly act you do but inclines you more and more 
to such deeds. Xever did human soul do good but it 
came readier to do the same again, with more enjoy- 
ment ; never was love, or gratitude, or bounty practiced 
but with increasing joy, which made the practicer more 
in love with the fair act. Then let kindness prevail, and 
do not hesitate to give it expression. Deep feeling is 



KINDNESS. 



653 



contagious ; words poured forth from burning hearts are 
sure to kindle the hearts of others. Hearts that can 
stand anything else are often melted by a tear. Let the 
heart palpitate in every line and burn in every word ; 
let the law of kindness actuate your every movement. 

Kindness exhibits itself in the disposition to contrib- 
ute to the happiness of others, and in refraining from 
all that may annoy them. Far too many think the giv- 
ing of money or other gifts is the end of their duty in 
kindness. Assistance of this kind is, indeed, often 
needed, and nothing else will quite take its place; yet 
often — oh! how often — does it come short of kindness. 
Real kindness comes from the heart, and is felt. It is 
not politeness, though all true politeness is founded on 
kindness. As a rough rind sometimes covers the sweet- 
est fruit, so a rough exterior often conceals a kindly and 
hearty nature. The blunt man may seem even rude in 
manner, and yet at heart be honest, kind, and gentle. 
The diamond unpolished is devoid of beauty, but not of 
value. The ordinary pebble may be polished to perfect 
smoothness, and yet remain valueless. The man kindly 
disposed may not know how to express himself in fash- 
ionable terms, and yet be a gentleman. A man destitute 
of kindness in his nature, though trained to perfection 
in forms of social etiquette, is still devoid of one of the 
most essential qualities of a gentleman. 

Unkind language is sure to produce the fruits of 
unkindness— that is, suffering in the bosom of others. 
We are far too remiss in the matter of speaking gently 
and kindly. Who does not know that kind and gentle 
words are far more effective than harsh expressions. 
Speak gently to the aged ones. The sun of their life 
is descending the western heavens. They live in mem- 



654 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



ory and not in hope. Sweeten their days all that you 
well can. Speak kindly also to the little child. It may 
have done wrong; but you are far more apt to reclaim 
by kindness than by force. Be careful to speak always 
in a gentle, kind way. Even when you have occasion to 
rebuke, be careful to do it with manifest kindness. The 
effeel will be incredibly better. Wise sayings often fall 
upon barren ground, but a kind word is seldom thrown 
away. Many are the lives that have been wrecked by 
unkindness. Hearts are like gardens. Kindness from 
others is the fertilizing rain, which not only renders it 
productive, but enlivens the somber scene with the many- 
lined bow on the clouds of sorrow, prophesying of future 
joy and happiness. 

Kindness consists in those friendly affections and 
services which mere justice docs not demand, nor any 
particular engagement require. When men are in 
trouble and lighting their unseen battles, kind looks, 
kind words, kind acts, and warm hand-shakes, are sec- 
ondary means of grace. Every kindness done to others 
in our daily walk, every attempt to make others happy, 
every difficulty that we smooth away from other's paths, 
every assistance given to others, advances us nearer to 
those great souls that make the age in which they live 
memorable. Every kind act, kindly expressed, will bear 
blossoms to our credit in the Beautiful Beyond. 



FAITH. 



657 



Faith. 

HIS world would be but a dreary waste were 
men destitute of faith. It is called into play- 
in all the vocations of life. There is needed 
faith in one's self, faith in others ; but, more 
than all else, because higher than all is, there is needed 
faith in God. It is the watchword of progress for the world, 
and of salvation for the soul. This often makes all the 
difference between success and failure. It climbs the 
dangerous steep, bridges the mighty stream, opens fount- 
ains in the desert and makes the wilderness blossom as 
the rose. It enables us to discover and tame the most 
terrible forces in nature, and put them in iron harness 
to work for men. It lifts the cloud of ignorance from 
the human mind, scares away the horrid specters of fear 
and superstition, stretches the iron nerve for the electrio 
thrill of thought to pass with lightning speed over the 
mountain and across the continents, and under the 
ocean, and all around the globe. 

Such are the results of faith in our own powers, in 
the conclusions of our intellect, and in the teachings of 
science. Then there is faith in our fellow-men. There 
are cases in which a man would have been ashamed not 
to have been imposed on. There is a confidence neces- 
sary to human intercourse, and without which men are 
more injured by their suspicions than they could be by 
the perfidy of others. It is a delight to the soul to have 
faith in the fidelity of another, and nothing can supply 

39 




658 



THE BIBLE COMPANION", 



the loss of it. It makes a pillow of softness for the 
cheek, which is burning with tears and the touch of pain. 
It pours halm into the very source of sorrow. It is a 
hope undeterred, a flowery seclusion into which the mind, 
when weary of sadness, may retreat for a caress of con- 
stant love; a warmth in the hand of friendship forever 
lingering on the hand; a consoling voice that dwells as 
with an eternal echo on the ear; a dew of mercy falling 
on the bruised and troubled hearts of this world. Be- 
reavements and wishes long withheld descend sometimes 
as chastening griefs upon our nature; but there is no 
solace to the bitterness of broken faith. 

But faith is used more in a religious sense than in 
any other way. It is by faith that devotion soars above 
this dull earth, breaks through its clouds, breathes a 
purer air, and lives in a softer light. It is the flame 
that lifts the sacrifice to heaven. It is the pencil of the 
soul that pictures heavenly things. It is the key that 
unlocks the cabinet of God's treasures; the King's mes- 
sengers from the celestial world, to bring all the supplies 
we need out of the fullness that there is in Christ. It 
is the subtle chain that binds us to the Infinite. The 
steps of faith fall on a seeming void, but light on solid 
rock. It is the inspiration of all good works, and, amid 
the disorders of a sinful life, is like the lamp burning in 
an ancient tomb. It enlightens our life, and irradiates 
the gloom when in the valley of the shadow. It is like 
the evening star that shines more brightly the deeper 
the gloom around us. It has made the vilest dungeon a 
holy place, and instruments of torture more sacred than 
the scepter of the king. 

A faith in the existence of an all-wise Father natur- 
ally produces patience, hope, cheerfulness, and all other 



FAITH. 



659 



dispositions of the mind that alleviate those calamities 
which we are not able to remove. It gives comfort to a 
man in times of poverty and affliction, but most of all 
in the hour of death. When the soul is hovering in the 
last moments of its separation, when it is just entering 
on another state of existence, to converse with scenes and 
objects and companions that are altogether new, what can 
support it under such tremblings of thought, such fears, 
such anxieties, such apprehensions, but the casting of all 
its cares upon Him who first gave it being, who has con- 
ducted it through one stage of it, and will be always 
with it to guide and comfort it in its progress 
through eternity? But its sweet influence sustains and 
soothes the trusting soul all along the way of life. In 
the darkest hours of Christian life we need only the 
clear vision of faith to see the day approaching. If we 
take only human feelings or human philosophy for our 
guide, we shall be ready to admit that the "tide in the 
affairs of men," of which poets Avrite, is only a tide, 
sometimes advancing with crowned and crested billows, 
gleaming in the light and breaking upon the old bul- 
warks of the shore with resistless shock and thundering 1 
sound, and then retiring to the original bed to repose 
and recover strength for the repetition of the same aim- 
less and ineffectual charge. But if we take the sure 
word of scripture for our teacher, and with such a guide 
endeavor to forecast the future, we shall see that the' 
night of conflict and disaster, which comes with the 
morning of hope and progress, is only the temporary 
darkness of an unsubstantial mist, which must dissolve 
and disappear before the light and heat of the coming 
sun. 

The most precious lessons of faith and patience and ' 



GGO 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



love often comes to those whose homes are darkened 
with the clouds of sorrow. The night of the natural 
world is often only the symbol of the deeper night of 
sorrow and disappointment that settles down upon the 
soul. We may learn, from this night of affliction and 
sorrow, many lessons which we could never master in 
the light of day. In ancient times, God sometimes spoke 
to men with audible voice, but then it was in hours of 
silence ami darkness, when the noise of the day was 
hushed and deep sleep had fallen upon the multitude. 
And so it is to-day. The lessons of faith are most 
clearly taughl in seasons of sorrow. 

In a home of poverty and affliction, where there may 
be perhaps trouble and sorrow enough to break one's 
heart, wo hear nothing but expressions of cheerfulness 
and gratitude and hope. In another, situated much the 
same, we hear expressions of murmurings, impatience 
and wrath. The same cloud of affliction has settled 
down upon the two houses. To one it brings light and 
peace; to the other, darkness and despair. God's afflic- 
tive providence is a cloud full of light to the meek, the 
humble, and those who walk by faith ; but it is very 
dark to the proud, the impatient, and those who lack 
faith. Light is sure to break, sooner or later, upon the 
path of those who hold themselves ready to go wherever 
faith leads the way. Every step in the life of faith is 
an advance toward the light, and to those who thus live, 
the darkest night of fear and trouble will soon break 
into the morning of joy and triumph. 

The faith to which is attached such momentous con- 
sequences, is a practical habit which, like every other, is 
strengthened and increased by continual exercise. It is 
nourished by meditation, by prayer, and the devout 



FAITH. 



661 



perusal of the scriptures; and the light which it diffuses 
becomes stronger and clearer by an uninterrupted con- 
verse with its object and a faithful compliance with its 
dictates ; as, on the contrary, it is weakened and ob- 
scured by whatever wounds the conscience or impairs 
the purity and spirituality of the mind. The higher you 
climb the difficult steep of faith and self-denial, the 
further you leave the misleading clouds of doubt and 
temptation beneath you. 

Faith bids the Christian leave his troubles and doubts 
with God. There are difficulties we can not settle of our 
ownselves. The only thing to be done with them is to 
lay them down and leave them. This the Christian 
must do if he wants peace. There is no system by 
which every thing can be made to look clear to men 
while they live in the flesh. As long as we live, there 
must continue to be many things that to us seem dark 
and mysterious. It matters not. Enough that there is 
no darkness, no mystery which is not clear to God. To 
Him let us leave matters, and not take the care of things 
upon ourselves. He who does this will come at last to 
peace. If broad daylight should never be his on this 
side of the grave, his heavenly Father will hold his feet 
in the twilight of the valley of the shadow, so that they 
shall not stumble, and at last he shall see all in the 
clear light of the Eternal Throne. 

Many men hesitate to use their faith just in those 
seasons they most need it. What are promises given 
for, if not to cling to amid present gloom and distress ? 
Every one has faith when things go to suit him. When 
he can see, he trusts; but when all goes wrong — that is 
against his plans and wishes — he loses faith. Faith is 
present when not needed, but absent when needed. We 



662 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



need a lamp at night, not in the day-time. So men need 
their faith when beset with troubles, not when all is well. 
Birds may walk along the earth, but when they meet 
with any hindrance to their progress, they spread their 
wings and soar aloft, and wheel in glorious circles through 
the pathless sky. So it should be with Christians. Let 
them walk by sight where that avails, then spread the 
wrings of faith and soar beyond all darkness, all unbelief, 
into those purer skies where light is and perpetual 
peace. 

And we all know that seasons of doubt and discour- 
agement come to all. The most cultivated mind is the 
one which, by much meditation and painful study, has 
attained the deepest knowledge of its own ignorance. It 
is still the discipline which an all-wise Providence im- 
poses on us all that we shall walk by faith and not by 
sight. When we claim to have cleared up all the mys- 
tery overhanging the present state, by the feeble taper 
of human wisdom, and pride prompts us to walk in the 
light of our own kindling, then we need the merciful in- 
terposition of an invisible and an almighty Arm to save 
us from wandering without end and falling to rise no 
more. We have only to look around us to see many 
apparent inconsistencies. 

The good and evil of life are distributed with strange 
inequality. Success crowns the wicked cause and disas- 
ter befalls the good. Error flies faster than truth; the 
guilty are acquitted with applause and the innocent suf- 
fer wrong. It is only at immense cost and sacrifice that 
the world is kept from entire subjection to the powers 
of darkness. And who can see all this without longing 
to know why the holy and beneficent One does not show 
Himself more clearly and justify His own ways without 



FAITH. 



663 



waiting for the feeble arguments and the faltering efforts 
of man. 

We may try ever so hard to keep the great reality 
of the future life constantly in view, and yet it will often 
hide itself from our vision in dim eclipse. We all know 
that God is to us the infinite Sun of Truth, and that in 
His light alone we can see light ; and yet the clouds of 
earth will often drift their darkness between us and 
Him so thickly that we can see His face only as the 
light of a nebulous star, shining faintly through its misty 
veil from the untraveled depths of immensity. The 
hours of clear vision, in which a good man can see God 
upon His throne of co-eternal justice and mercy, with no 
cloud between, are fewer than the fair nights in which 
the astronomer can explore the paths and trace out the 
eternal harmonies of distant worlds. 

This is the dark side of human experience, when, as 
we have seen, the need of faith is greatest. . There is 
another, the triumphant side, when we feel sure there is 
no such word as chance or accident in the inspired 
vocabulary of faith. To people of such faith the skies 
are always clear, the pathway of ascent from earth to 
heaven is always open, and the angels of blessing are 
ever coming and going upon errands of mercy. All 
places are safe, all losses are profitable, all things work 
together for good. Still, the highest reach of faith in 
this earthly life is only the star-light of a fair morning 
that foreruns the full and eternal day of heaven ; and as 
the near approach of coming glory will sometimes raise 
thick clouds, and make the hour before the dawn seem 
the darkest of the night, so does sometimes the faith of 
good men seem to burn with lessened luster as the hour 
of final triumph draws on. 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Remember that faith grows by conflict with doubt, 
as virtue gathers strength by resistance to temptation. 
Then do not be afraid of mystery; do not clamor for the 
short and senseless creed of him who only believes what 
he can understand. There are mysteries in every pulsa- 
tion of life, and every perception of the mind, which the 
deepest philosophy can not fathom. Do not be troubled 
and cast down simply because you can not always see 
your Father's face. You can not know the reason of 
much that He requires you to do, much that He does 
Himself, much that lie permits to be done. You must 
have faith enough to believe that the night around you 
is day to 1 1 i in , and that in Him there is no darkness at 
all. The true greatness and joy of life comes from faith 
in things unseen. 

We know what would be the effect of abating faith 
to nothing among men as clearly as we know what would 
be the effect of blotting the sun from the heavens. We 
kn<»w it by an induction as broad and clear as ever 
underlaid a science. It means disorder; it means wicked- 
ness ; it means the decay of homes and government; it 
means the French Revolution, the reign of such men as 
Robespierre and Mirabeau ; it means riot and uprising 
and communistic excitement. Life would then be but a. 
burning, sandy desert, surrounded on all sides by a dark 
and impenetrable horizon. An endless, starless night 
would settle over the world, and, instead of the hymns of 
praise and the song of hope, there would everywhere be 
heard the wail of anguish and despair. One of the most 
terrible evils that can befall man is to lose faith in God, 
the Bible, religion, and humanity. He is then, indeed, 
a w T anderer in a strange land. The future must be black 
before him, and w T hen he comes to stand on the great 



FAITH. 



665 



shore of the eternal sea, its tossing waves bring him no 
prophecy of another land. 

The faith that we have thus far been considering con- 
veys the idea of trust, reliance, confidence. The faith 
that the Bible speaks about includes in its meaning 
something else. The great apostle to the Gentiles re- 
peatedly urges that faith without love is nothing ; and 
he explains that love is the fulfilling of the law — that 
is, the humble doing of all that God requires of man. It 
is in vain to look for an education without much and 
hard study, for that is God's way of giving men an edu- 
cation. It is vain to pray for daily bread, and do noth- 
ing to obtain it. A farmer who plows his ground and 
plants his corn in the proper time, and protects it from 
animals and weeds, is raising a crop by faith. It is not 
faith to pray for a crop, and idle away the precious 
time, thinking God will give a crop by such an exhibi- 
tion of trust and confidence. So, also, the apostle James 
urges that faith without works is dead — meaning by 
works the same that Paul did by love. Religious faith, 
then, is acceptable, and such that God will approve of, 
when it not only causes us to rest down with child-like 
confidence on His promises, but when it inspires us with 
a willingness to do all His commandments. Faith, lack- 
ing this, is like a bird without wings ; it may hop about 
on the earth, but it will never fly to heaven. But when 
both are joined together, then doth the soul mount up to 
her eternal rest. 



666 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



I7OPE. 



OPE is the anchor of the soul, as faith is the 
cable. The way of life is so dreary, realiza- 
tion falls so far below expectation, our actual 
enjoyments are so few and transient, that man 
would be a very miserable being were he not endowed 
with hope, which constantly points out bright prospects 
for gudd in the future. The opening mind of the little 
child betrays the influence of hope when his little hand 
readies forth for the sunbeam. It goes with him through 
life; ami when the burdens of many years rests upon 
him its influence is still strong. It keeps the mind 
awake in its most remiss and indolent hours. It gives 
habitual serenity and good humor. Faith is a kind of 
vital heat in the soul that cheers and gladdens, even 
though its presence be little known. 

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries 
of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this 
comfort, be insupportable. Nor does it appear that the 
happiest lot of terrestrial existence can set us above the 
want of this general blessing, or that life, when the gifts 
of nature and of fortune are accumulated upon it, would 
not still be wretched were it not elevated and delighted 
by the expectation of some new possession, of some new 
enjoyment yet behind, by which the wish shall be at 
last satisfied, and the heart filled up to its utmost extent. 
Hope is, indeed, very deceptive, and seldom fufills her 
promises ; but her promises are more valuable than the 




HOPE. 



667 



gifts of fortune, and it seldom frustrates us without assur- 
ance that we will be rewarded for present disappointment 
by more glorious returns in the future. In the subtle 
alchemy of hope the slightest possibilities are ever trans- 
muted into the golden probabilities and inevitable cer- 
tainties. 

Hope is the ruddy morning of joy, ever betokening a 
fair day. Experience is the risen sun, which shows us 
the perils of our way, reveals the low lying clouds in the 
distance, and oppresses us with its heat. Memory is the 
evening's calm which allays our disappointments, invites 
us to meditate on the past, and gather strength for the 
future. Man is ever wishing, and never satisfied ; ever 
changing, and never fixed ; ever anticipating, never re- 
alizing. But hope is ever with us. Even those who 
have nothing else have hope. Its fascination is constant. 
Those unfortunates who, weary of contention in the 
world, close their eyes in death, hoping, at least, that all 
will be well with them in the beyond. The flights of 
the human mind are not from enjoyment to enjoyment, 
but from hope to hope. Though experience convinces 
that hope is deceitful, we also learn that she conducts us 
through life by agreeable paths. 

Hope is also the sustainer and inspirer of great 
deeds. It is the principle of activity. Without holding 
out hope, to desire one to advance, is absurd and sense- 
less; for where there is no hope there can be no en- 
deavor. Men have accomplished wonders who Avorked 
for an end with unwavering hope that they would suc- 
ceed. Men, who have made inventions that have ben- 
efited the race, have labored in hope, notwithstanding 
the failure of many of their attempts, until success was 
won. We might almost say that all things are possible 



G68 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



to him that hopes. It is, indeed, a wonderful faculty, it 
bids defiance to misfortune, proposes to surmount all 
obstacles, and spurs us up to exert ourselves to the 
utmost. 

Hope sometimes throws a glamor over the judgment. 
The mind should not be allowed to dwell too long Oil un- 
reasonable hopes. If we hope for what we are not likely 
to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a 
greater dream and shadow than it really is. Thus we 
see that hope should be used with prudence. This, at 
least, is true, that man can not make a greater mistake 
than to so zealously press forward in pursuit of anticipated 
good that he neglects the pleasures of the present. We 
should not hope for things without thoroughly consider- 
ing their value. Many of the disappointments of life 
arise from this cause. Neither should we entertain too 
strong a hope for that which lies at too great a distance 
from us. The shortness and uncertainty of our time 
here makes such a kind of hope unreasonable and absurd. 
The grave lies unseen between us and the object we 
reach after. Where one man lives to enjoy the good he 
has in view, ten thousand are cut off in the pursuit of it. 

Hope is a blessing or an evil as we make use of it. 
The man who dreams away the precious hours, letting 
hope run riot through his brain, building improbable 
air-castles, suddenly wakes to the stern realities of life, 
and it is with ill-concealed disgust that he takes up the 
duties of every-day life. Such people fail to perceive 
that hope, no less than faith, is dead, unless accompanied 
by works. They confound hope with mere wishing. The 
wife and mother, neglecting home duties, may hope for 
home happiness. But a true hope goes hand in hand 
with duty ; and he only truly hopes who resolves and sets 



HOPE. 



669 



about to achieve as far as his own exertions may secure 
the good of which hope has prophesied. But, on the 
other hand, how hope sweetens toil, how it cheers on the 
well nigh discouraged. < It chases away cares, it alleviates 
sorrow, and incites the feeble to effort. Nothing would 
be done in the world without hope of some reward. 

Hope is, therefore, the great engine that spurs men 
on to activity. This is true whether we refer to the 
social, the religious, or the business world. That which 
is thus universal must be for good. We, therefore, find 
that hope is a religious duty as well. It is one of the 
three Christian exercises — faith, hope, and love. But, 
in this sense, it always includes the willingness to do 
whatever is seen to be necessary to secure the promised 
good. It is natural and right that we should desire the 
possession of good. We should strive to obtain it with 
expectation, energy, and hope. A hope of future good 
entertained in this spirit, under the providence of God, 
has done much for man in the past, and is doing 
much now. 

Success can not be achieved without striving after it. 
He who shoots at a mark, may after all, miss it; but 
his chances are infinitely better than if he despairingly 
makes no effort, but shoots his gun at random. He who 
entertains high and noble hopes, and presses forward for 
their attainment, may indeed fail of achieving them, but 
how much better his chances are than one who dis- 
misses hope ! The desire and expectation of good helps 
one to labor for its possession cheerfully, and bear all 
weary toil necessary to success. What we earnestly and 
truly hope to be, that in some sense we are. The mere 
hoping, by changing the frame of the mind, for the mo- 
ment realizes itself. 



670 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



We all know that our desires keep pace with our 
ability to gratify them. Like the horizon, they expand 
the higher we rise. Hence it is that every one is more 
or less dissatisfied with his present surroundings. Thus 
it is also that the imagination ranges ahead in quest 
of future happiness, and fixes upon some point of time 
when the troubles and disadvantages of our present state 
will he removed, then indeed we shall be happy. Some- 
times, in the good providence of God, such a time at 
length arrives; but, alas! the blessing which we expected 
is not with it. Again hope beams upon us. We solace 
ourselves with some new prospect, and press forward 
again with equal eagerness. But are we not better for 
this eager pressing forward? To be hopeless of change 
in our condition is moral and physical stagnation. 
Only let us hope for that which is becoming our high 
estate, and press forward with the right spirit, not neg- 
lecting the duties of life, then we may be sure our efforts 
will meet with their due reward, if not what we ex- 
pected. 

Hope helps us to recover after a sad defeat; like 
faith it wipes the tear from sorrow's eye and whis- 
pers words of consolation. Often, when the hand of 
misfortune has darkened our brightest prospects and 
swept away our sunlit dreams of future happiness, has 
some unseen monitor pointed our drooping spirits to- 
ward the day-star of hope, and bid us struggle on, and 
as we look forward in the future, fancy points us to a 
brighter day's dawning. When the soul is often bowed 
down w r ith the weight of its own sorrows, the heart is 
well nigh crushed, and despair is slowly preying as a 
canker worm upon its vitals, even then some faint glim- 
mering of a hopeful future steals upon us like a rainbow 



HOPE. 



671 



of light. It is the duty of every one to thus hope on ; 
but with this hope also remember the necessity of so 
laboring that he may have good reason for the hope that 
is in him. 

We have seen that hope is the main spring of human 
action. It has done much for religion. Every man of 
thought and reflection is conscious of his own weakness and 
woes, and conscious also that he is capable of enjoying 
something higher and nobler than that which he now 
possesses and enjoys; he therefore naturally, as a rational 
being, made in the image of God, looks forward with 
hope to something better than what he now possesses. 
Evils are pressing constantly upon him. From the 
moment in which he opens his eyes upon life, to that in 
which he closes them in death, they do not cease to urge 
him. To pain, sickness, pestilence, hunger, thirst, the 
inclemency of the elements, the changes of the seasons, 
storms, tempests, earthquakes — to the loss of friends and 
of estates, and to innumerable other woes from without — 
he must be continually exposed in his present state. 

From within, his sufferings are not less. His im- 
mortal mind is so connected with his bodily frame, that 
almost every evil which assails the latter must also af- 
fect the former. And besides, what a mass of incon- 
sistencies does he find within himself? So much wisdom 
linked with so much folly, so much consideration joined 
to so much rashness, such exalted conceptions followed 
by such low and groveling desires, such lofty aspirations 
after something purer and more satisfactory to the nature 
of the soul, and yet quickly followed by a retinue of ap- 
petites that may degrade him below the brutes which 
perish! What a mystery, what an inexplicable enigma 
is man when viewed merely in such a light ! There have 



672 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



been minds in every age and nation which have reflected 
on subjects such as these, and have, as it were, instinct- 
ively, been led to indulge hopes or expectations of deliv- 
erance at some future period from a condition in which 
such things must be suffered. 

Such hopes of future happiness, such desires for 
something better than earth, moves man heavenward 
and Grodward. Every experience of the unsatisfactory 
nature of earthly things should direct us to the strong- 
hold of hope. Every Jiang caused by an uneasy con- 
science should awaken within us a more intense longing 
for the peace that passeth all understanding. The most 
lonely and desolate spot on earth becomes a holy place 
t<> the heart that turns with longing and with hope to the 
living God. 

The world is full of toilers who never get any satis- 
factory return for their labor. Loosing sight of Him who 
is the light of the world, they work blindly and ineffectu- 
ally, putting forth great efforts, and pouring out all their 
strength, and coming to the end of life without ever 
having found anything worth living for. The world is full 
of the disappointed and unhappy, just because it is full 
of those who set their hearts upon securing that which, 
gained or not gained, can never satisfy the deepest wants 
of the soul. Oh, let us fix our hopes on that which is 
worthy of our desires and aspirations, and then let us be 
diligent in achieving the same. And though dark shad- 
ows may linger round our pathway — and dark clouds of 
gloomy despondency steal over our spirits in the journey 
of life — yet let us still hope on ; yes, hope ever, feeling 
that though dark may be the night, bright will be the 
dawning of the day. 



CHARITY. 



673 



IIARITY is a word of varied import. We 
may mean by it the mutual help that one 
ought to afford another. It may mean that 
kind of construction that one ought to put 
upon the words and actions of another. It may mean 
that love which the text tells us is the fulfilling of the 
law. In any case it has a noble meaning. It is a uni- 
versal duty which it is in every man's power sometimes 
to practice. Every degree of assistance given to another, 
upon proper motives, is an act of charity, and there is 
scarcely any man in such a condition that he may not, 
on some occasion, be of help to others. He that can 
not relieve the poor, may instruct the ignorant; and he 
that can not attend the sick, may reclaim the vicious. 
He that can do none of these things, can, at least, speak 
kindly, and show by his action that he feels kindly 
towards all. 

He that can give little assistance himself, may yet 
perform the duties of charity by inflaming the ardor of 
others, and recommending the petitions, which he can 
not grant, to those who have more to bestow. The 
widow that shall give her mite to the treasury, the poor 
man who shall bring to the thirsty a cup of cold water, 
shall not lose their reward. But remember in all this, 
that charity alone endures which flows from a sense of 
duty and a hope in God. This is the charity that treads 
in secret those paths of misery from which all but the 

40 




674 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



lowest of human wretches have fled; this is that charity 
which no labor can weary, no ingratitude detach, no 
horror disgust; that toils, that pardons, that suffers, that 
is seen by no man; but, like the great laws of nature, 
docs the work of God in silence, and looks to a future 
and better world for its reward. 

Nothing seems much clearer than the natural direc- 
tion of charity. Would we all relieve, according to the 
measure of our means, those objects immediately within 
the range of our personal knowledge, how much of t&jl 
worst evils of poverty might be alleviated. However 
wretched a fellow mortal may be, he is still a member 
of our common species. Success may not have crowned 
all his efforts as it has our own. Those unfortunates, that 
we know were honest and industrious when so to be was 
in their power, have claims on us, acknowledged by 
every good heart. When we meet these claims we are 
fulfilling those duties that all men owe to distress; and 
they are duties easily discharged, since they shed sun- 
shine in our own hearts. 

The charities of life are scattered everywhere, enam- 
eling the vales of a human being as the flowers paint 
the meadows. They are not the fruit of study, nor 
the privilege of refinement, but a natural instinct. No 
matter where, whether in the homes of the rich or the 
hovels of the poor, wherever the tree of charity takes 
root, it sends forth branches beyond the skies. It is that 
rational and constant affection which makes us sacrifice 
ourselves to the human race as if we were so united 
with it as to form one individual, partaking equally with 
its adversity and prosperity. As the sun's rays will 
irradiate even the murky pool, and make its stagnant 
waters to shine like silver, so does a spirit of charity 



CHARITY. 



675 



lighten up the blackest heart, and we catch a gleam of 
the stamp of divinity which would otherwise be invisible. 

Charity, though enjoined by the Christian law and 
the law of nature itself, is withal so pleasant that, if any 
duty can be said to be its own reward, or to pay us 
while we are discharging it, it is this. The sweetest 
joys of life are to be found in rendering assistance to 
others. To complain that life has no joys, while there 
is a single creature whom we can relieve by our bounty, 
assist by our counsels, or enliven by our presence, is to 
lament the loss of that which we possess, is just as irra- 
tional as to die of thirst with the cup in our hand. Our 
true acquisitions lie only in our charities. We gain 
only as we give. There is no beggar so destitute as he 
Avho can afford nothing to his neighbor. We are rich 
only through Avhat we give, and poor only through what 
we refuse. 

In every heart there are many tendencies to selfish- 
ness, but the spirit of charity counteracts them all. In 
a world like this, where we are all so needy and depend- 
ent, where our interests are so interlocked, where our 
lives and hearts overlap each other and often grow 
together, we can not live without a good degree of mu- 
tual charit} r . Our highest interests are met when we 
fulfill the requirements of that all-embracing word, Char- 
ity. We do most for ourselves Avhen we do most for 
others. If selfishness be the root of evil, benevolence is 
its cure. The most benevolent soul lies nearest to God. 
A beneficent soul is like a fountain watering the earth 
and spreading fertility ; it is, therefore, more delightful 
and more honorable to give than to receive. 

The last, best fruit, which comes to late perfection, 
even in the kindliest soul, is Charity. It includes ten- 



676 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



dernesa toward the hard, forbearance toward the unfor- 
tunate, warmth of heart toward the cold, sympathy 
toward the miserable. Its object should be world-em- 
bracing, not confined to our household clique or neigh- 
borhood. As freely as the firmament embraces the 
world, so charity must embrace friend and foe. The sun 
pours forth impartially his beams through all the regions 
of infinity; heaven bestows the dew equally on every 
thirsty plant. Whatever is good, and comes from on 
high, is universal and without reserve. We have every 
reason to conclude that moral action extends over the 
whole empire of God, that charity exerts its noblest 
energies among the inhabitants of distant worlds, if such 
there be, and that it is chiefly through the medium of 
reciprocal kindness and affection that ecstatic joy per- 
vades the heart of celestial intelligences. 

We live only as we fulfill the duties of life; and one 
of the most prominent of duties is that of helping one 
another. The race of mankind would perish did they 
cease to aid one another. From the time that the 
mother binds the child's head till the moment that some 
kind assistant wipes the death damp from the brow of 
the dying, we can not exist without mutual help. All, 
therefore, that need aid have a right to ask it of their 
fellow-men ; no one who holds the power of granting can 
refuse it without guilt. We can not conceive happiness 
to exist in any region of space, or among any class of 
intellectual beings, where love to the Creator and charity, 
one for another, is not a prominent and permanent 
affection. 

Beneficence is a duty. He w T ho frequently practices 
it at length comes really to love him to whom he has 
done good. Nothing truly can be termed our own but 



CHARITY. 



677 



what we make our own by using well. Those deeds of 
charity which we have done shall stay forever with us, 
and that wealth which we have so bestowed we only 
keep ; the other is not ours. It is not so much the 
amount of what we give as the circumstances of giving. 
A single cup of cold water will call forth more gratitude 
from lips parched with fever — a single beam of sunshine 
will be received with more thankfulness by the prisoner 
in his dungeon — than rivers of water and a universe of. 
sunlight bestowed in the ordinary course of free and 
healthful daily life. 

When charity takes the form of simple alms-giving, 
it requires to be used with great circumspection. It is 
a very important Christian duty ; still, it may be abused 
and work evil, in which case it is not charity. Organi- 
zation is a great means of bringing order out of confu- 
sion. Our organized charities are now on such an effi r 
cient scale that we are seldom justified in giving alms to 
persons that we do not know to be deserving. Too often 
they are misapplied. And yet evident distress must 
always be relieved; and we must beware that we do not 
fall into that rigid circumspect charity which is never 
done without scrutiny, and which always mistrusts the 
truth of the necessities laid upon it. Though we may 
sometimes unintentionally bestow our beneficences on the 
unworthy, it does not take from the merit of the act, 
for charity does not adopt the vices of the objects. 

When we think it wise to bestow alms, we should 
give as we would receive — cheerfully, quickly, and with- 
out hesitation ; for there is no grace in a benefit that 
sticks to the fingers. We might almost say that that 
comes too late that comes only for the asking. When 
we reflect that an all-knowing, all-wise Being showers 



678 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



down every day His benefits on the unfaithful and undo- 
serving, while we can in no wise foresee the effects of 
our charities, we need not repine if we occasionally learn 
that we have misplaced some charitable act. There 
is one rule always safe to adopt : That charity is bad 
which takes from independence its proper pride, from 
mendacity its salutary shame. On the whole, the giving 
of alms is a duty enjoined upon all. It is proper that 
alms should come out of a little purse, as well as out of 
a great sack ; but, surely, where there is a plenty, charity 
is a duty, not a courtesy; it is a tribute imposed by 
1 1 raven upon us, and he is not a good subject who 
refuses to pay it. 

Charity in the sense of kind judgments passed on 
others for their words and acts, is an exercise of one of 
the noblest traits of character. It is much neglected, 
and yet it is conducive of much good. It has been said 
that wo must put a good construction on every act that 
will permit one. This is, perhaps, an overstatement of 
the facts. We should haste to put a good construction 
on every act that on the whole seems to deserve it. But 
we arc not to shut our eves to facts, and ascribe good 
intentions to men whose every act implies that they are 
cruel, lawless, and wicked men. AVe should judge men 
by their fruits, and if their acts are clearly bad, regard 
them in that light. We are to do this in justice to our- 
selves and others. 

We are always to condemn the evil and applaud the 
good. The essence of charity may be mercy, but it is 
none the less true that the essence of mercy is justice. 
Making a child suffer for wrong-doing is merciful to the 
child. There is no mercy in letting the child have its 
its own will, plunging headlong to destruction with the 



CHARITY. 



679 



bits in its mouth. There is no mercy to society or to 
the criminal, if the wrong is not repressed and the right 
vindicated. We injure the culprit, who comes up to take 
his doom at the bar of justice, if we do not make him 
feel that he has done wrong. We may deliver his body 
from prison, but not at the expense of justice nor to his 
own injury. 

And yet we apprehend that the world is not in great 
danger in this respect. There is far too little of the 
spirit of charity in judging of the acts of others. And 
even when we know that others have done wrong, be not 
too hasty in judgment. What we know of the world 
and the history of mankind teaches us to look upon the 
errors of others in sorrow rather than in anger. When 
we take the history of one poor heart that has sinned 
and suffered, and represent to ourselves the struggles 
and temptations through which it has passed — the 
brief pulsation of joy, the feverish inquietude of hope 
and fear, the tears of regret, the feebleness of purpose, 
the pressure of want, the desertion of friends, the scorn 
of the world that has little charity, the desolation of the 
soul's sanctuary, and threatening voices from within, 
health gone, reputation gone, happiness gone — oh, then 
we have little heart for aught else than thankfulness 
that it is not so with us. Then, indeed, we feel willing 
to leave the erring soul of our fellow-man with Him 
from whose hand we ourselves came. 



680 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



OW ninny throw away health, character, life, 
just for a brief and trifling- gratification! How 
many, in an unguarded and fretful moment, 
let words pass the lips which no tears or after- 
regrets can recall! How easy it is to do in a moment 
of enticement, or provocation, what one would give his 
light hand to change when done, but which can never 
be blotted from the book of memory. It is always a 
bad bargain for one to barter away a good conscience, a 
pure heart, and the hope of heaven, for any mere earthly 
advantage. 

All our other sorrows are storms that beat upon us 
from without; but regret, sorrow for past conduct, ever 
arises and haunts us from within. There are, probably, 
none who escape this feeling. The cry of weariness and 
of woe is stifled in many a heart while the voice speaks 
in a tone of thoughtlessness and gayety, and the coun- 
tenance wears a cheerful look. Upon some minds, long 
hardened by sin, regret has no more effect than have 
the shadows that chase each other upon the solid rock. 
In the sunshine of God's unfailing mercy the gloom 
is dispelled as fast as it arises. They look forward 
and not backward. The time must come when the 
shadows will be permanent, the sky will be overcast, 
the sun will' be set, and no light will appear through the 
ever-increasing gloom. 

An idle word may be seemingly harmless in its utter- 




CHRIST BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN. 681 



REGRET. 



683 



ance; but let it be fanned by passion, let it be fed with 
the fuel of misconception, of evil intentions, of preju- 
dice, and it will soon grow into a sweeping fire that will 
melt the chains of human friendship, that will burn to 
ashes many cherished hopes, and blacken more fair 
names than one. Things not so strong as words even 
may suffice for this purpose. A look, an enforced silence, 
may do the work, and a good name may be ruined; a 
noble heart may be forever crushed. 

Regret may disturb the slumbers of a man who is 
dabbling with his first experience of wrong. But when 
the pleasure has been tasted, and is gone, and nothing is 
left of the crime but the ruin which it has wrought, then 
the furies take their seats upon the midnight pillow. In 
such cases the voice of conscience is the voice of God, 
declaring His abhorrence of wicked deeds and the pun- 
ishment which they deserve, and that His providence 
presides over the actions of moral agents, and gives in- 
timation of the future destiny of those who persist in 
their wrong acts. 

When we stop and review the past, how much do 
we see to regret in our lives: Oh! if we could only 
begin again to weave the tangled threads of life ; but, 
no ! the years pass on — we must content ourselves with 
such scenes as memory calls up. But if she presents, as, 
indeed, she does, scenes full of sorrow, scenes which we 
would fain forget, she, in a measure, recompenses us for 
this. In the lives of all there are events over which we 
delight to dwell ; there are words and places, and faces, 
that never lose their hold upon the heart. They may 
be words that we seldom hear amid the whirl of life; 
faces that we may never see on earth again ; places that 
we are but seldom permitted to revisit. They were once 



684 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



the scenes, the associates, the joy of our life, they had a 
controlling influence in training our aspirations and in 
shaping our destinies, and they can never be wholly for- 
gotten. The flight of years can not sully their innocence 
nor diminish their interests, and eternity will preserve 
them among the dearest reminiscences of earth. 

The years that are flown are full of voices — voices 
eloquent and pathetic. All who have lived long have 
stood over the grave of many an early dream. Success, 
when it came, was not what they thought it would be; and 
even success has been denied to many. All have watched 
by the couch of many a hope, and seen it fail and die. 
All have buried many a bright expectation, and laid the 
memorial wreath over many a joy. When, alone by 
ourselves, at times, we close our eyes and think, these 
memories become oppressive. Withered garlands are 
there and broken rings, and vases once fragrant with 
flowers and the white faces of those who sleep. 

Happy reminiscences of life are like stars in the firma- 
ment of youth, lighting up the pathway of the past, 
and when, in later years, the night of sorrow 7 gathers 
around the soul*, memory, like the astronomer's tube, 
piercing the surrounding gloom, sweeps that distant sky 
and reveals those stars still shining with undiminished 
luster. We must not forget that memory seizes the 
passing moment, fixes it upon the canvas, and hangs the 
picture upon the soul's inner chamber, for her to look 
upon when she will. How careful, then, should we be 
to do all in our power to make such reviews pleasant. 
Depend upon it that a life of good deeds, and devotion 
to duty, will afford great happiness when we can only 
sit with folded arms gazing into the future and living 
again the past. 



REGRET. 



685 



But no pen can adequately paint the feelings of those 
who can look back only on a life of wasted opportunities. 
Even after we have done our best, there is much to re- 
gret, but how much keener is that feeling when we know 
that our actions in the past were at that very time con- 
demned by our conscience. The only way to escape the 
stings of accusing conscience is to begin now to do right. 
We have an inward monitor, God's revealed word, and 
the lives of good men and women, to point the way and 
guide us therein. 

We must be careful and not dwell too much on 
past troubles. There are some troubles that only time 
can heal, and, perhaps, some that can never be healed at 
all, but can be helped by the great panacea, work. When 
grief sits down, folds its hands, and mournfully feeds 
upon its own tears, weaving the dim shadows that a little 
exertion might sweep away into a funeral pall, the 
strong spirit is shorn of its might, and sorrow becomes 
our master. In this way regret may be carried too far. 

Some of the troubles of the past could not have been 
helped any way ; but all are in the past, and we can 
only draw from them lessons for our future guidance. 

We had best not form too high hopes of the future. 
When the inordinate hopes of early youth, which provoke 
their own disappointment, have been sobered down by 
long experience and more extended views, when the keen 
contentions and eager rivalries, which employed our 
riper age, have expired or been abandoned ; when Ave 
have seen, year after year, the objects of our fiercest 
hostility, and of our fondest affection, lie down forever 
in the hallowed peace of the grave ; when ordinary 
pleasures and amusements begin to be insijnd, and the 
gay derision which seasoned them to appear flat and im- 



686 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



portunate ; when wc reflect how often we have mourned 
and been comforted, what opposite opinions we have suc- 
cessively maintained and abandoned; to what inconsistent 
habits we have gradually been formed, and how frequently 
the objects of our pride have proved the source of our 
shame; then wc learn to set a true value on future good. 

Ihit this takes years to experience. Youth can not 
see with the eyes of the aged. But yet when this is the 
concurrent testimony of all, is it not the part of true 
wisdom to form in our own minds right conceptions of this 
matter? Will it not save us from much regret in the 
future? Should we not be on the alert to do what duty 
calls for now. and look for our happiness in the present? 
A faithful discharge of duty will secure us much of hap- 
piness now, and free us from vain regrets in the future. 

Many would give every thing they have in the 
world only to be put back for one moment, to have the 
opportunity which they once had but neglected. To 
have better opportunities in the future, we must improve 
the opportunities of the present with prompt and willing 
hands. We should go through life as a traveler goes 
through the Swiss mountains ; a hasty word may bring 
down an avalanche — a misstep may plunge us over a 
precipice. We must beware of the beginning of evil. 
The first step in a downward course is easy either to be 
taken or avoided. But whoever takes that, will be 
likely to take another, and then another, until the way of 
return becomes as steep and difficult to climb as the icy 
precipice of an Alpine mountain. He may repent his 
course with years of suffering and sorrow, but it is too 
Lite. Temptation comes in so many ways, so well dis- 
guised are its approaches, that we must be ever watching 
and guarding against it. 



SORROW. 



687 



Sorrow. 



HERE is not a heart in this universe of ours, 
but what has experienced more or less of sor- 
row. We may be sure this is heaven's ap- 
pointed way. Corals, agates, and crystals are 
found on many a stormy shore ; so the Christian finds 
God's most precious gift in the rugged paths of sorrow. 
Precious ore is dug from deep mines, but it must be 
purified by many a process, and finally receive a govern- 
ment stamp before it passes readily from person to per- 
son. The furnace of affliction and sorrow is sometimes 
necessary to refine human hearts from the dross of earth 
and to soften them for the impression of God's own 
stamp. The time of sickness or affliction is like the 
cool of the day to Adam, a season of peculiar propriety 
for the voice of God to be heard, and it may be improved 
into a very advantageous opportunity of begetting or in- 
creasing spiritual life. 

There have been human hearts constituted just like 
ours for thousands of years. The same stars rise and 
set upon this globe that rose upon the plains of Shinar 
or along the Egyptian Nile ; and the same sorroAvs rise 
and set in every age. All that sickness can do, all that 
disappointment can effect, all that blighted love, disap- 
pointed ambition, thwarted hope ever did, they do still. 
Wot a tear is wrung from eyes now, that, for the same 
reason, has not been wept over and over again, in 
long succession since the hour that the fated pair stepped 




688 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



from paradise, and gave their posterity to a world of 
sorrow and suffering. The head learns new things, but 
the heart forevermore practices old experiences. Therc- 
fore, our life is but a new form of the way men haw- 
lived from the beginning. 

The deepest joy of the heart sometimes springs from 
the deepesl humiliation. The tear shed in the time of 
sowing gives promise that the reaper shall bring home 
his full sheaves rejoicing. The troubles and sorrows, the 
temptations and burdens, which try the spirit most 
severely, only give it wings to rise and help it on in the 
heavenly way. As the tree is fertilized by its own bro- 
ken branches and fallen leaves, and grows out of its own 
decay, so is the soul of man ripened out of broken hopes 
and blighted affections. The darkest night that ever fell 
upon the earth never hid the light, never put out the 
stars. It only made the stars sparkle with greater 
brilliancy as if in protest against the darkness. 

We do not get our best vision of heaven, we do not 
feel ourselves surrounded, as the apostles did, by a great 
crowd of witnesses when we simply hear or read some 
good book, or meet in the church to listen to discourses 
and to exchange pleasant salutations. It was the martyr 
who saw "the heavens open and the Son of God stand- 
ing on the right-hand of God." It is when we have 
borne submissively some dreadful sorrow that we see the 
golden ladder reaching upward as did Perpetua from the 
darkness of the dungeon. When we have given our- 
selves to some great work and wrought it by God's 
help, and the inspiration of His Spirit, triumphantly 
to the end, then it is that heavenly comfort is vouch- 
safed us. 

Earthly prosperity should be estimated by its in- 



SOEROW. 



689 



fluence on the soul. What we here term adversities, 
may, in reality, be blessings. When we cast off these 
vestments of clay, perhaps they may come in beautiful 
garments to welcome us to the everlasting habitations. 
Here we spoke of them as evil messengers ; in the court 
of heaven we may, perchance, recognize them as "angels 
sent on errands full of love." The heart, when broken, 
is sometimes like sweet gums and spices when beaten ; 
for, as such cast their fragrant scent into the world, so 
the heart, when broken, casts its sweet scent forth to 
heaven. The incense, which was a type of prayer of old, 
was to be beaten or bruised, and so to be in the censer. 
The heart must be beaten or bruised, and then the sweet 
will come out. 

To some it is appointed to wander in Gethsemane, 
having no variation to their lives, except, perhaps, a 
walk to Calvary. Others have their lives appointed in 
more pleasant places. But there is no life which is all 
sunshine. We are not to seek sorrow, but when it is 
sent to us, we are not to fret and grumble at it, but 
try and go cheerfully along, not claiming to be indiffer- 
ent to it, but patient under it. It is for our good; it 
will make us better men and women. Nothing is so 
purifying as sorrow, if it be rightly borne. Such con- 
siderations as these should incline us to bear patiently 
such sorrows as may fall to our lot. We may regard 
them as barriers planted by Heaven to restrain the 
exuberance of our feelings, our follies, possibly even of 
our crimes. 

He must be a most singular character who will not 
display his good as long as all is well with him — as 
long as the sun shines and the fair breath of heaven 
gently wafts him to the fulfillment of his own purposes; 



690 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



but to find the true test of a man he must be placed in 
persecution ; let him ride in a storm ; let his bones be 
broken with sorrow, and his eyelids loosed witli sick- 
ness; let his bread be dipped with tears, and all the 
daughters of music be brought low, then the true nature 
of the man will become apparent. Happy the man who, 
thus weighed, is found not wanting. Who, indeed, bows 
to afflictions, but patiently endures them, and goes forward 
in the discharge of every-day duty? lie has been tried 
as by fire, and his value proven by the severest of tests. 

lie who hopes for a life free from sorrows is not 
only hoping for what will never be, but for that which 
would not be for our best good. It is as true in the 
fields of morals, as in the material world, everything 
which is best worth preserving is ordinarily secured by 
efforts that are painful and costly. By disappointments 
and trials our minds are formed to sobriety and reflec- 
tion. Under the changes of life we are called to experi- 
ence and practice both the active and suffering virtues. 
Were the vanity of the world less, it could not so well 
answer the purpose of salutary discipline. Uncertain 
and unsatisfying as it is, its pleasures are still too apt to 
corrupt the heart. If, with all our troubles, we are in 
clanger of being ruined by it, how entirely would it have 
accomplished its purpose if no troubles had been min- 
gled with its pleasures. 

In our darkest and most desolate moments God may 
be using our trouble and despondency as a means of 
drawing our hearts to Him. We may find Him nearest, 
when we thought Him farthest off. When the aims of 
human ambition are frustrated, the objects of earthly 
affection are removed, the sources of worldly pleasure, 
desire, and effort fail to satisfy the soul, then the voice 



SORROW. 



691 



of God is calling to trust in Him ; then the heavenly 
Father is coming forth to invite the wanderer home. 
So evermore does God bring light out of darkness, and 
joy out of sorrow, and great peace out of conflict, for 
those whom he is leading in the divine life and prepar- 
ing for the blessed rest. 

When a great trial comes upon you in an unex- 
pected way, when the course of duty is hedged up by 
many and great difficulties, when you are just ready to 
give over to utter discouragement and despair, you may 
be sure that heaven's glory is hovering behind the cloud 
that darkens your path. You have only to press on in 
the way of duty, and the full day will shine around you, 
and you will look back with joy and gratitude upon all 
the trials and difficulties through which you have passed. 
If only your conscience is clean, and your heart right 
before God, earthly calamity will, in many cases, prove 
a blessing. Trial and suffering will not fail to make 
you strong. 

There is something sustaining in the very agitation 
that accompanies the first shock of trouble, just as an 
acute pain is often a stimulus, and produces an excite- 
ment which is transient strength. It is the slow, changed 
life that follows in the time when sorrow has become 
stale, and has no longer an emotive intensity that coun- 
teracts its pain ; in the time when day follows day in 
dull expected sameness, and trial is a dreary routine, it 
is then that despair threatens. It is then that danger 
comes in. Our words may sound cruel, but there is heal- 
ing in them. All must beware of nursing their grief. 
The claims of duty are none the less pressing now than 
in the happier days of yore. Depend upon it a faithful 
discharge of your every-day duties, extending a helping 

41 



692 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



hand to some brother or sister Avho is in danger of fall- 
ing by the wayside, will do much to lighten your load 
of sorrow ; and, if it must ever be with you through 
life, yet we are sure the setting sun will break through 
the clouds and shed a" beautiful radiance over the last 
scene of all. 

Let not the sorrowing one forget that God's love is 
over all, yearning for all, enduring through all. He 
fain would bear your burdens, but Pie can not. Each 
human soul must drink the cup that is pressed to his 
lips. Into each life some rain must fall. All must have 
trials, all experience sorrows. And we doubt not this 
matter is more evenly divided than seems to be the case 
at first glance. Did we but know the secret history of 
each human soul we would find recorded much of suffer- 
ing. Let us then go through life willing to bear the 
trials it brings us. And when sorrow takes up her 
residence with us, it becomes our guest for a season, we 
can do no more than patiently submit to it; but through 
all forget not that God reigns, through all forget not the 
claims of duty, and peace will be ours sometime, though 
it may not be this side of the river. 



DEATH. 



693 



Death. 

IFE is a journey ; the end is nearing. It is a 
race; the goal will soon be reached. It is a 
voyage ; the port will soon be in sight. Time 
is but a narrow isthmus between two extremes. 
You are going surely. How many things you have 
already left behind— the old home, friends, parents, 
scenes of childhood and early years ! How much of the 
way you have passed over! You will never return to 
the place from whence you started ! You are going on, 
and on, and away from all your early years ! It is a 
startling thought that our business will soon be left be- 
hind; that our work Avill soon be done, and that we shall 
leave this stage of being — leave it forever — our homes 
and cares, and all the interests that engage us here, and 
never, never more, come back! 

Life is like a summer's residence at a bathing place. 
When you arrive you first become acquainted with those 
who have already been there some weeks, and who leave 
you in a few days. This separation is painful. Then 
you turn your attention to those who arrived with you. 
With them you live a good while, and become really 
intimate. But soon the most of these go, also, and you 
are left lonely with those who came just about as you 
were going away. You have but little to do with them. 
Some stay long, some but a short time in this world. 
Some souls blossom almost as soon as they enter life, and 
then they depart. The flower that opens when it breaks 




G94 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



from the ground, and then dies, is an emblem of the 
infants that die. Violets are the children and youth 
who finish their mission near life's entrance and then 
depart. 

But every life, no matter how short, accomplishes 
something. An infant, a prattling child, dying in its 
cradle will live again in the better thoughts of those who 
Loved it, and play its part through them in the redeem- 
ing actions of the world, though its body be burned to 
ashes or drowned in the deepest sea. There is not an 
angel added to the host of heaven but does its blessed 
work on earth in those that loved it here. Oh ! if the 
good deeds of human creatures could be traced to their 
Bource, how beautiful would even death appear! How 
much charity, mercy, and purified affections would be 
seen to arise from beds of death. 

When death strikes down the innocent and young, 
for every fragile form from which he lets the panting 
spirit tree, a hundred virtues rise in shapes of mercy, 
charity, and love to walk the world and bless it, Of 
every tear that sorrowing mortals shed on such green 
graves, some good is born, some gentler nature comes. In 
the destroyer's steps there springs up bright creations 
that defy his power, and his dark path becomes a way 
of light to heaven. We hold reunions, not for the dead, 
but for the living. There is nothing in all the earth 
that we can do for the dead. They do not need us, but 
forever and forever more we need them. 

What a memorable epoch in the history of a home is 
that in which death finds his first entrance within its 
sacred inclosures, and, with ruthless hand, breaks the 
first link of a golden chain that creates its identity! 
That event is never forgotten. It may be the first born 



DEATH. 



695 



in the radiant beauty of youth, or the babe in the first 
bursting of life's budding loveliness, or a father in the 
midst of his anxious cares, or the mother who gave 
light and happiness to all around her. Whoever it is, 
the first death makes a breach there which no subsequent 
bereavement can equal. New feelings are then awakened ; 
a new order of associates is then commenced; hopes and 
fears are then aroused that never subside ; and the mys- 
terious web of family life receives the hue of a new 
and darker thread. 

Most of us have stood and wrung our hands at part- 
ing with some one who would never more come back to 
us in this world, but such partings and memories are 
not wholly in vain. There are things back of us, known 
only to Heaven, which have greatly shaped our lives. 
There are faces, and the pressure of hands, and snatches 
of song, and the light of long-closed eyes, and the far 
distant murmur of solemn prayer, which Ave do treasure 
evermore. There are those with faith enough to think 
that by and by the old faces will be seen once more, the 
loved voices heard anew, and all lost ones be once more 
found. 

The flower fadeth, but the seed and the fruit remain; 
and this teaches us there is nothing to sadden us in the 
process of decay in nature and vegetation. This is pre- 
liminary to a higher growth. Our present life, with all 
its activities and enjoyments, is but the flower-form of a 
being whose fruit-form is found in an after and higher 
life, and decay and death are no more than the falling 
of petals from the well-set fruit, Human life and flower 
life are alike mainly in this. Both are stages of progress. 
The fruit, not the flower, is perfection. This world is 
not all; there is a world beyond. 



696 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



Of all the solemnities of which the mind can con- 
ceive, death is the greatest. There may be here and 
there an empty heart and a thoughtless brain, across 
which no such meditations pass for months, or even 
years; but these are exceptional characters, and leave un- 
affected the truth that no reflection comes to man with 
such uniformity and power as the thought that, in a few 
years, we shall all be far away. That which is thus 
universal must be for the common good. Death comes 
equally to all, and makes us all equal when he conies. 
The ashes of an oak, in a chimney, are no epitaph of the 
tree. It tells us not how high it was, how large it was, 
nor what flocks it sheltered while it stood. The fate 
which overtook that tree is a tit emblem of death, which, 
in its resistless course, levels alike the king and the 
peasant, the wise and the ignorant, the rich and the 
poor, the young and the old. 

This world is the subdued and vested domain of 
death. The history of the past is a record of the tri- 
umph of the king of terrors. In all lands the genera- 
tion of the departed outnumber the living; and all that 
now live must soon taste death. There is no pathway 
of life where the destroyer may not be met at any mo 
ment. There is no home from which the grim shadow 
of death can be shut out. The bloom of youth, the 
strength of manhood, the glory of age, are withered in 
his icy breath as the late flowers wither in the frosts of 
autumn. But if this be the gateway to future good, why 
should we dread it ? Were we deprived of all hopes of 
a future existence, still constituted as we are, to the 
great majority of us, the time must come when even 
annihilation would be preferable to continued existence. 
Could we always live young, in the possession of health, 



DEATH. 



697 



strength, and friends, the case might be different; but 
age and infirmities will be our lot, the heart will grow 
weary, and we long for rest. 

In all the returns and gatherings of earth there are 
some missing. Many times the lost are more than the 
found. The further we go on in the journey of life, the 
fewer of the friends of youth are left to keep us com- 
pany. When we visit a former home after long absence, 
and inquire for the friends of other years, we are told of 
one and another that they have gone the way whence they 
will not return. And, as time passes on, we are all get- 
ting more names upon the roll of our acquaintances, 
whose places are vacant, who gather with us no more, 
who answer not when their names are called. The 
crowd press on with hurried and heedless tread in the 
very path out of which men are constantly passing from 
time into eternity, sometimes at a single step. 

The flame of life burns so feebly upon the secret 
altar of the heart that it can be put out by a sudden jar 
or a single breath. The partition between us and the 
unseen world is thin as the garments that clothe our 
flesh, and as easily pierced as the bubbles that float on 
the waves. A slight change in the elements of the air 
we breathe would wrap the whole earth in devouring 
fire, or stop the breath of everything that breathes. The 
draught of water with which we quench our thirst holds 
imprisoned an electric force great and terrible enough to 
darken the heavens with tempests, and to shake the 
eternal hills with its thunders. As life is thus critical, 
any word may be our last ; any farewell, even amid glee 
and merriment, may be forever. If this truth were but 
burned into our consciousness, would it not give a new 
meaning to all our human relationships? How much 



698 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



more of kindness would there be in the world were this 
thought acted upon. 

Human friends may go hand in hand to the very 
brink of the cold river that rolls between this and the 
unseen land. They may do much to soothe and sustain 
each other as the last hour draws near. Jhit there is a 
point beyond which human help can not go. Every one 
of us must advance to meet the great and final foe with 
no human hand on which to lean. We must turn away 
our faces from our earthly friends, and pass in under the 
deep shadow of eternity without their company. Each 
individual must stand exposed to the dread arrow of the 
great destroyer, with none to turn aside the shaft. ]>ut 
all who accept the great truths of Christianity, and have 
made the good light, know there is One who walks with 
them into the valley of the shadow, whose rod and 
whose stall* shall comfort them. 

Life was made to be enjoyed, and he who would 
dampen all pleasures, with mournful reflections on the 
fleeting nature of earthly enjoyments, displays but little 
wisdom, to say the least. But still there are times 
when, as reasonable creatures, it becomes us to contem- 
plate that solemn moment when for the soul time ends 
and eternity begins. There is no round-about way, no 
by-path, no circuitous route, to the other world. Our 
friends may stretch out their hands to keep us back, 
but no entreaties on their part can change the course of 
events. They might offer large retainers, but death 
accepts no fee. The breath will fail, the eyes will close, 
the heart will cease to beat. You may hang the couch 
with gorgeous tapestry, but death respects not finery. 
You may hang the room with the finest works of art, 
but death cares nothing for landscapes. You may make 



DEATH. 



699 



the house resound with waitings and weepings — this does 
not affect death. 

The whole multitude of us are hurrying along 

whither remains to be decided by the test of our faith 
and the grace of God — but certain it is we are all travel- 
ing. We are chained to the chariot of revolving time; 
there is no bridling the steeds, or leaping from the 
chariot. We must be constantly in motion. It is sim- 
ple wisdom, then, to reflect on this fact, and to direct 
our footsteps somewhat in accordance with the same. 
Death often comes in terrible forms, but every one knows 
that many a time and oft it comes in the garb of a friend. 
And some even are so burdened with the sorrows of life 
that they rashly invoke his presence, and, of their own 
will, lay aside the robes of flesh. 

Life, no doubt, should be a scene of happiness ; 
but, largely from our own fault, it is true, all know 
that it abounds in many trying scenes. It is some- 
what pitiful to see the young and the gay brought 
suddenly face to face with the stern realities of life, 
and care and trouble and sorrow take up their thence- 
forth unceasing abode with them, and yet the only 
thing to do is to take up the burdens of life with a 
brave heart. As life advances, does it not often seem 
to be as a vessel going to pieces, as if we were on the 
broken fragments of a ship, or in a solitary skiff, on the 
waste of waters? But so long as existence lasts we 
are not to give up the duty of cheerfulness and hope. 
He who has guided us through the day may guide us 
through the night also. The pillar of darkness often 
turns into a pillar of fire. Let us hold on until the 
morning breaks. 

Wonderful is the power of death to disarm resentment, 



700 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



to kindle anew the fires of love and friendship in the 
heart. When the veil of death has been drawn between 
us and the objects of our regard, how quick-sighted do 
we become to their merits, and how bitterly do we re- 
member words, or even looks, of unkindness, which may 
have escaped in our intercourse with them ! How care- 
ful should such thoughts render us in the fulfillment of 
offices of affection which may yet be in our power to 
perform ! Who can tell how soon the moment may 
arise whet) repentance can not be followed by repara- 
tion ! Probably, if we were to think more upon this 
subject, nut in a somber melancholy sort of way, but as 
becomes rational beings, we would do many things dif- 
ferently than we do at present. 

We are to regard death as the entrance to a larger 
and fuller life. We need not be too sure we know ex- 
actly what it is to be. We feel quite certain, however, 
it is to be a progressive life, and we feel certain, also, 
that our present life will greatly influence our condition 
there. All can accept these views, unless, indeed, their 
faith is too feeble for them to conceive of an existence 
beyond the grave. The Christian, of course, goes on to 
higher ground. Looked at in any reasonable light, 
death itself ought not to be dreaded. The circumstances 
connected with it are indeed painful. This human 
heart of ours, the heart that fears and trembles, experi- 
ences its deepest woes from the inroads of death ; but 
if we only pursue this subject a little further, why, 'tis 
but Heaven's appointed entrance to life immortal. 
Earthly life is but a dream, death the awakening. 

Let us only remember that life's evening takes its 
character from the day which has preceded it. We know 
indeed that Infinite mercy accepts repentance even on 



IMMORTALITY. 



701 



the death-bed, but, in such cases, it is as if the storms 
of day had suddenly ceased and through the rifted 
clouds the setting sun was shining. But the death of 
the just man is like the glorious sunset that rounds out 
and completes the perfect day. How lovingly the light 
lingers in the upper atmosphere ! How the cloud-specks 
catch and reflect the sun's rays, and see! — ere yet their 
golden tints are darkened — the evening star is shining. 

Immorality. 

ROBABLY at no time in the world's history 
has there been a lack of speculation on the 
question whether, "If a man die shall he 
live again?" Upon the question of the im- 
mortality of man depends all that is most interesting to 
man as a social being, or as a rational and account- 
able intelligence. If he is destined to an eternal exist- 
ence, an immense importance must attach to all his 
present affections, actions, and pursuits ; and it must be 
a matter of infinite moment that they be directed in such 
a channel as will tend to carry him forward in safety 
to the felicities of a future world; but, if his whole 
existence be circumscribed within the circle of a few 
fleeting years then it is not a matter of such importance. 

We see the young, the middle-aged, and the old 
passing away. Are they fallen asleep forever? Here is 
a person whose whole life has been passed in the acqui- 
sition of knowledge. His mind has expanded with in- 
creasing years. .He may be tottering under the infirm- 




702 



THE BIBLE COMPANION. 



itics of age, but his mind, and all his intellectual powers, 
are brighter now than when his body possessed the 
elasticity of youth. Is the light of that brig-lit intellect 
to be quenched in death? This is, indeed, an important 
question; even the most careless and indifferent have 
an intorest in it. By as much as eternity exceeds time, 
tlu- Infinite surpasses the finite, does this question sur- 
pass all others. 

When we begin to inquire on this point we learn 
that all nations of the world, the most enlightened and 
the most ignorant, believe in some form of continued 
existence. Many have seized on this as a ground of 
hope. They can not think it true that the great body 
of mankind are holding an error. Much has been math; 
of this. Some of the brightest minds that ever walked 
the earth have considered this fact proof enough ; and yet 
how we grope for more convincing proofs! How we 
long for some demount ration that shall end all doubt! 
But demonstration can not be looked for. If we ap- 
proach this question outside of the Bible, there are no 
sufficient data given for its solution. Only those who 
accept the Bible, as the revealed word of God, can be 
confident that this life is but the preparation for an 
eternal existence. 

There may be much that leads us to such a con- 
clusion, but only a revelation from on high could settle 
this question. It maybe very true "we have powers 
capable of endless progression; faculties which find no 
appropriate sphere on earth, which are caged and con- 
fined as the panting bird, aspiring after liberty, beats its 
breast against the restraining bars ;" yet the hope of 
immortality rests finally on faith. There are, however, 
just as good grounds for this faith as there are for the 



IMMORTALITY. 



703 



belief in a God. No amount of reasoning from a sci- 
entific basis is going to make this belief any plainer to 
us. The Bible gives no arguments on this point, makes 
no explanation, it simply proceeds on the assumption 
that this is the truth. 

How joyfully would we hail the hope of immortality 
had that hope just come into the world. If dust had 
been the assumed end of man, what discovery of science 
or art would compare in sublimity with the sudden as- 
surance of a second and blessecl life ? Such an expecta- 
tion dwarfs all the common hopes of the world. In 
virtue of it the prospects of human nature are infinitely 
widened; the creature of yesterday becomes the child of 
eternity. When we reflect how we love life, and long 
for continued existence, and are saddened at the thoughts 
of death, we at once see the importance of this belief in 
immortality, and can imagine how gladly we would 
receive it, if for the first time we heard it and were 
convinced of its truth. 

There are times when the best life seems a sheer 
failure to the best man who has lived it. His wisdom 
seems folly, his genius impotence, his best deeds poor 
and small. At such times he wonders why he was suf- 
fered to be born. All the errors of the world seem im- 
posed upon him. He stands in a populous loneliness, 
and, though weak, can only lean upon himself. In such 
hours how keenly he feels the insufficiency of this life ! 
If he seeks for relief, is it not some satisfaction to be- 
lieve that this life is not the whole of man? That a 
being, capable of high and pure motives, is not like the 
beasts that perishe? That there is a dwelling-place 
prepared for the spirits of the just, and that the ways 
of God will yet be vindicated to man? Does he not 



704 



THE BIBLE COM PA N ION. 



ris/ from such communion with self stronger and bettor — 
more resolute to persevere unto the end. 

It will always be found that a realization of the 
spiritual nature and the eternal duration of man purifies 
and elevates him. The clearer a man sees human des- 
tiny and true life, the more he reveres humanity as a 
thins sacred and honored of God. With God and 
heaven and eternity to inspire him, and call forth his 
efforts, how can he be so unwise, so thoughtless, so un- 
mindful of his true and proper destiny, as to give him- 
self up to the things that perish, when his own existence 
has only just begun? Made to live forever, why sup- 
press and contradict the noblest aspiration of our nature 
by trying to live only for this world? Why imprison 
our immortal spirit within the narrow round of earthly 
cares and toils and pleasures, when we are invited to 
enter the palace of heaven's eternal King, and to associ- 
ate, on terms of freedom and equality, with the princes 
and powers of the universe. 

To the Christian, this present life is simply a pil- 
grimage to a better country and to a city whose builder 
and maker is God. Every day he moves his tent nearer 
to a true home. His citizenship is in heaven, his 
thoughts, his hopes, his aspirations are heavenly. This 
state of mind docs not disqualify him from the duties of 
earth, but rather makes him more faithful and conscien- 
tious in his calling. lie remembers he must render an 
account for every word and deed at the bar of God's 
judgment. Indeed, in proportion as he lives up to his 
feelings, he infuses the purity and happiness of heaven 
into his home. Death looses its terrors when we remem- 
ber w T e are immortal. 

Reason is like a telescope. You can arrange it so 



IMMORTALITY. 



705 



that with it you can see only things near to you, but it 
has other powers. By drawing it out and properly ad- 
justing the glasses, you can make what is near you grow 
dim, and the things afar off to come near; and by and 
by, when the lenses are all right, you can see beyond the 
stars and into the heavenly city, and the magnificent 
background of your view is the glory of God. At such 
times this belief in immortality becomes very clear and 
distinct. How beautiful is this belief, when fully per- 
ceived. The words "dust unto dust" pertain not to the 
whole of man. A refrain of immortality concludes earth's 
history and announces eternity's beginning "not lost, but 
gone before." Such is the cherished and beautiful faith 
of man in all ages and lands. Though in some it is but 
a mere glimmering. 

Man lives two lives. The first is short and transient; 
the second, permanent and lasting. The question we are 
concerned in is this : In which of these two lives is it 
our chief interest to make ourselves happy ? Or, in other 
words, should we endeavor to secure to ourselves the 
pleasures and gratifications of a life which is uncertain 
and precarious, and, at its utmost length, of a very in- 
considerable duration ; or, to secure to ourselves the 
pleasures of a life which is fixed and settled and of end- 
less duration? Every one knows which side he ought 
to choose, but, in truth, we are far too apt to make pro- 
visions for this life as though it were never to have an 
end, and for the other life as though it were never to 
have a beginning. 

Believers in immortality, then, should regard death 
neither as an end nor as a beginning. It is a transition, 
not from one existence to another, but from" one state of 
existence to another. No link is broken in the chain of 



TOG 



Till: BIBLE COMPANION. 



being, any more than in passing from infancy to man- 
hood, from manhood to old age. Christian believers are 
to think of heaven as a home — a home for loving and 
grateful hearts. Home is the dearest spot on earth, the 
scene of our purest enjoyments, but how uncertain are its 
pleasures and endearments! And, perhaps, few in this 
world have a genuine home. There is always something 
lacking. 

Though we can never in this world be sure our con- 
ceptions of the future world are in all respects the proper 
ones, yet we may rely on this that it will be some place 
jusl suited to the wants of spiritual beings. Though we 
need not be certain that we know what life in heaven is, 
nor what will be our occupations there, we do know that 
whatever is most beautiful and lovely, whatever is most 
delightful in experience, and most pleasing in sensation, 
are used by inspired writers to give us an idea of 
heavenly joys; and, after these are all exhausted, we are 
told it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Oh, let us 
so live that when the hour of death draws nigh, we may 
fall asleep only to awaken in the beautiful home of the 
soul, where death and parting are no more. 



I 



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